Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright Page

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1 - The Spirit World

Chapter 1 - I See Dead People

Chapter 2 - Divine Purpose

Chapter 3 - Spiritualism: Continuity of the Spirit

Chapter 4 - Why Make Contact?

Part 2 - What’s on the Other Side?

Chapter 5 - Spirit Geography: Planes of Existence

Chapter 6 - Birth, Death, and Passing Over

Chapter 7 - Spirit Guides

Chapter 8 - Earthbound Spirits

Part 3 - Invoking the Spirits

Chapter 9 - Incoming Messages

Chapter 10 - A Little Help from the Pros

Chapter 11 - Tipping Tables and Blowing Horns: It Must Be a Séance!

Chapter 12 - Uncovering the Medium Within

Chapter 13 - Understanding the Message

Part 4 - Activating Your Spirit Senses

Chapter 14 - Mediumistic Sight, Hearing, and Knowledge

Chapter 15 - Telepathic Bridges

Chapter 16 - Psychometry: The Power of Places and Objects

Chapter 17 - Dream Weaver

Part 5 - Being: The Essence of Spirit

Chapter 18 - The Healing Power of Spirit Energy

Chapter 19 - Everything Is Spirit, Spirit Is Everywhere

Chapter 20 - Near-Death Experiences

Chapter 21 - Time, Space, and the Soul’s Life

Part 6 - Karmic Cycles and Soul Lessons

Chapter 22 - Mastering Your Spirit Gifts

Chapter 23 - Soul Patterns and Life Lessons

Chapter 24 - Using Spirit Energy to Heal the World

Appendix A - Glossary

Appendix B - Additional Resources

Index

For Jess: Life is Life

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Foreword

I admit I entered into my first reading with a genuine psychic medium on January 15, 1999, a bit skeptically. Though open-minded enough to try a medium, I really didn’t believe that people could see, hear, and talk with spirits. In my late 30s at the time, I had never witnessed anything that led me to believe in such “nonsense.” I went to see the medium because my brother-in-law, Derek, told me she gave him a reading full of details—including names, dates, and information a stranger could never know about him. Despite my skepticism, Derek’s story intrigued me enough to risk the money it cost for the reading.

I ended up with much more than I expected that day. Rather than the normal one-hour reading, I had a three-hour reading that left me sobbing like a lost child for at least half of that time. I lost my psychic virginity and my manhood all in the same day! The names, dates, and secret details of my life came through exactly as Derek said his had. By the end of my reading, the medium had given me so much evidence, my skepticism shattered.

This single event altered the course of my life. I had recently had a book published about depression and bipolar disorder, and I had no idea what I would write about next. But after these three hours of spirit communication through a psychic medium with my deceased father and grandmother, I knew immediately that my next book had to be about spirit communication. So I began my research for Medium Rare.

The funny result, though, of being a skeptic for more than 30 years is that it doesn’t prepare you for writing a book about spirit communication!

So I spent the next three years reading every book, magazine article, and website I could find on the subject. Because the reading material never satisfied my craving for a well-rounded education on spirit communication, I also immersed myself in three years of frequent readings with extraordinarily gifted mediums from around the world. Additionally, I interviewed these spirit messengers about their life, their gift, and the wisdom they had gained from their communication with spirits. And finally, I interviewed masses of people who had readings from psychic mediums.

A short time after I wrote Medium Rare, I learned about the impending publication of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Communicating with Spirits: the one book that could have saved me years of reading, interviews, and investigation. Well, thank you very much Idiot’s Guide people! You couldn’t have thought of this book a little sooner? I forgive the publishers, of course, because the author they chose to write this book, Rita Berkowitz, is both a dear friend and an incredible medium who helped me along my journey. In fact, the publisher discovered Rita by reading an article I had written about her on my holistic online magazine, OfSpirit.com.

In my spirit explorations, I kept hearing about this incredible psychic medium who could also draw the spirits she sees. The day I met Rita, my mind exploded into pieces when I saw her portfolio of spirit drawings. Each spirit drawing had a photo next to it of that person when he or she was still here on the earth plane. I found myself dumbfounded at Rita’s ability to capture each spirit’s distinct features: the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears, the hair—even the style of clothing or jewelry he or she normally wore. I knew immediately I had to have a reading from Rita and one of these stupefying spirit drawings.

Now a pro at getting psychic readings (or so I thought), I no longer got emotional during my readings. But when Rita drew my grandmother, seeing such a tangible display of evidence that Gram had survived death and was still around me caused some tears to leak out and run down my cheek. (I faked a yawn and wiped them off very quickly ….)

Elated with my spirit drawing and reading, I wrote about Rita on OfSpirit.com. Since that article became public, people from around the world have thanked me for introducing them to Rita Berkowitz. Rita is much more than a gifted medium and spirit artist; she is also a gifted teacher. This truth was never more obvious to me than when I received an advance copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Communicating with Spirits. Even with all I learned from my own research and experiences writing Medium Rare, Rita’s book taught me insights about spirit communication, spiritualism, and activating my own spirit senses of which I was unaware.

Anyone interested in understanding the how and why of spirit communication or desiring to communicate with spirits on their own will gain a depth of insight from Rita’s wonderful book that is invaluable for spiritual growth. If there is one thing I have learned in my three years of studying some of the most gifted mediums in the world, it is that we all have a unique potential for communicating with spirits—and we don’t need a psychic medium to do it for us. I highly recommend you use the wisdom within this book to discover your own potential for spirit communication and enhance the wonder and amazement of your own, very personal, spiritual adventure.

Warmly,
Bob Olson

Bob Olson, editor of OfSpirit.com Magazine, is the author of Medium Rare: A Skeptic’s Journey into the World of Spirit Communication and the Afterlife and Win the Battle: The Three-Step Lifesaving Formula to Conquer Depression and Bipolar Disorder. Bob writes and lectures on the subjects of spirit communication, life after death, and the spiritual principles of success and overcoming life’s obstacles. Contact Bob through the OfSpirit.com website at www.ofspirit.com.

Introduction

Each of us has a different reason for wanting to communicate with loved ones who have passed to the higher side. Many of us have unresolved issues and concerns. Maybe you didn’t get to say “good-bye” or “I love you” before your loved one passed. Perhaps the relationship was difficult. Maybe you just feel a need to maintain a connection. Or maybe you want to establish evidence of the continuity of life.

This book provides a foundation for you to explore your interest in spirit communication. Whether you’ve already experienced spirit contact (yourself or through a medium) or are just intrigued by the idea, you’ve come to the right place.

Co-author Rita Berkowitz is an ordained Spiritualist minister, certified medium, and commissioned healer. Throughout this book, we use stories and examples from her experiences. To protect the privacy of others, we’ve changed the names—but the stories are real.

Rita is also a talented artist. What she experiences as a medium, she can draw or paint for her clients. Although the veracity of the information she conveys during a reading is compelling enough by itself, seeing the image of a loved one arise from Rita’s pencil and paper is irrefutable evidence of the continuity of life beyond physical boundaries.

Rita’s spirit drawings appear throughout the book, along with photographs of the person from physical life. The names and stories of these people are real, and we thank them for being willing to share them with us—and with you.

About This Book

There are six parts to this book:

Part 1, “The Spirit World,” looks at different perspectives on life, physical death, and the continuation of the spirit’s existence. The four chapters in this section explore burial customs, the connection with the divine, the Spiritualist religion, and the answers we look to spirit communication to provide.

Part 2, “What’s on the Other Side?” explores the differences between the earth plane and the spirit world. The four chapters in this section examine the various ways spirit contact happens and many reasons we welcome and seek it, look at why spirits choose to come through in communication, and why some spirits find it difficult to leave the earth plane.

Part 3, “Invoking the Spirits,” investigates the validation and symbolism of spirit communication. The five chapters in this section provide information about, and exercises to develop, the psychic and psychical skills that facilitate spirit contact.

Part 4, “Activating Your Spirit Senses,” looks at some of the more advanced skills that help mediums make spirit connections. The four chapters in this section include exercises to help you develop these skills.

Part 5, “Being: The Essence of Spirit,” explores the healing aspects of spirit energy. The four chapters in this section look at the different ways spirit energy connects you to your past, your present, your future, and your environment.

Part 6, “Karmic Cycles and Soul Lessons,” examines the ways you can use spirit energy in your life. These final three chapters give you ways to apply the lessons you learn to your individual life and to use spirit healing to influence the world community.

You’ll also find two helpful appendixes. The glossary collects all the terms that we’ve defined throughout the book and adds a few more to provide a basic dictionary of words you need to know when reading and talking about the many aspects of spirit communication. The additional resources appendix lists other books that provide in-depth information about specific topics or that are just good sources for learning more about spirit communication. This appendix also includes contact information for websites, mediumship schools, and relevant organizations.

Extras

Each chapter contains boxes with interesting and useful information.

Spiritology

Check these boxes for terms and definitions so you’ll know what we mean when we say ...

Silver Cord

Here you’ll find tips, information, and factoids that don’t quite fit in the text but are too irresistibly interesting to leave out.

Premonition

These boxes contain cautions, because spirit communication is not a board game.

Mediums and Messages￘

Check these boxes for interesting anecdotes that provide insights and explanations about spirit communication.

Acknowledgments

It takes many people to turn a good idea into a good book, and we deeply appreciate the efforts of all those who worked to bring this book into existence. We give thanks to (and for) the wonderful team at Alpha Books, including publisher Marie Butler-Knight and our editors Randy Ladenheim-Gil, Lynn Northrup, Anja Mutic, and Christy Wagner. Special thanks go to Lee Ann Chearney of Amaranth, for her extraordinary vision, acceptance, guidance, and support.

Debbie thanks these people: Mike, Chris, and Cass for their love and patience. Dianne (“Dicycle”), for her observations and insights. Ava, for having the courage to speak the truth. Giuseppe, for the generosity of his amazing invitation. And Rita, for her insight, good humor, flexibility, and enthusiasm as we’ve shared the journey of writing this book.

Rita thanks these people: my husband David and daughters Deborah and Erica for all your love and support and not thinking it too strange that I spend so much time with “dead people.” I want to thank Stephen O’Leary, Career Counseling Professor, for saying the right words, “Use your gifts.” Thanks to Bob Miller, founder of the Silver Birch Healing Sanctuary, dear friend, and mentor for always teaching me that all spirit communication is for healing. And thanks especially to Bob Olson, who walked into church one morning and asked for a spirit drawing and changed both of our lives. Bob took on the awesome task of creating the online spiritual magazine, OfSpirit.com, that has helped to connect the people in the spiritual/holistic community around the globe. I can’t begin to express the great appreciation I, as well as so many others, feel about his work. Thank you, Bob, for all that you do.

And last, we thank the many people who have been willing to share their stories, experiences, and spirit drawings with us to include in this book. These people and events are real, and they validate the continuity of life as nothing else can.

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Part 1

The Spirit World

Throughout history and across cultures, humankind has shared a common belief in the continuation of life after death. Although the physical body dies, the spirit lives on. These beliefs form the basis of numerous religions and faith systems.

The chapters in this part explore some of these common elements in beliefs and practices.

Chapter 1

I See Dead People

In This Chapter

• Existence as a continuum

• Death, the journey continues

• Spirit communication is always about healing

• Are you in touch with spirits? A quiz

• Sharpening your mediumistic abilities

• Trust your intuition!

How often do you pick up the phone to call your sister, brother, parent, friend, or lover—someone near and dear to you—for no apparent reason and then find out that something significant has happened or is going on in the person’s life? These bonds connect you in ways that transcend conscious communication. We welcome, and even expect, these connections as evidence of the depth of our relationships.

As these bonds connect us to others in our physical lives, they also extend beyond physical boundaries. Many people expect to stay in contact with loved ones even after they pass on. And we expect this contact to take place along the bonds formed in our physical lives. Spouses, parents, children, and dear friends—people connected through love in the physical world and separated by death—establish and maintain contact that transcends life and death.

Many people who want to communicate with spirits desire to make contact with loved ones who have passed on. (We’re guessing that, because you’re reading this book, you are among them.) And many spirits that initiate contact with the physical world have the same desire. This contact can be for comfort, to protect or shelter, to explain or forgive, or simply to continue a loving relationship.

The Continuity of Life

You might think of spirits as ghostly images that drift around just beyond the boundaries of physical experience. And in a sense, this perception isn’t wrong … just incomplete. Spirits are all around us. Some we can see, hear, and touch—those who, like us, inhabit physical bodies. We may not recognize others that are present as discarnate spirits. They might be spirits that once lived or are yet to live in the physical plane, or spirits that exist solely in the spirit plane.

Spiritology

A discarnate spirit is one without a physical body. The physical plane is the level of existence at which spirits take physical form (our physical world). The spirit plane is the level of existence at which there are no boundaries of tangibility, time, or space.

The cycle of life and death has fascinated humankind for all of its existence. What, we ask through our spiritual and religious pursuits, defines the start and end of this cycle? This line of questioning finds itself limited by the boundaries of physical existence. But what if we reverse this thinking? Instead of looking at human beings as physical bodies that have spirits (or souls), what if we look at human existence as spirits inhabiting physical bodies? Then the cycle becomes a continuum.

The Greatest Journey Begins with Preparation

Many ancient cultures buried their dead as though they were leaving on grand, extended journeys. Excavated burial sites on nearly every continent show bodies carefully prepared and surrounded by valuables, food, and other items the departed might need in the afterlife. Scientists have dated some of these sites to be as old as the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago. Consistencies among sites in certain locations provide evidence that cultures often followed precise rituals in burying their dead. The ancient Egyptians meticulously removed the body’s major organs, sealing them in clay jars placed around the body so the spirit would find them ready as it entered its next life.

The Healing Power of Love

While there are many reasons why people want to communicate with spirits, all paths lead to only one purpose: healing. Healing can take numerous forms, from emotional closure to physical health. It can be understanding, insight, knowledge, or acceptance. We speak of this healing as being “guided by the light”—undertaken with the protection of the Divine, however you define it within the framework of your belief system.

Comfort from the Other Side

Countless people, grieving the loss of loved ones, find comfort in contact with the other side. Sometimes it is loved ones who have passed who initiate the contact, reaching from beyond to comfort and even protect those on this side. Sometimes contact comes indirectly, from other spirits who want to reassure the living that those who have passed are at peace.

Often, relatives who have passed become regular visitors. In their communications, they have joyous stories to share. They want to be of comfort, to establish that existence continues beyond what we view as the boundary of death. As a result, many people live the remainder of their physical lives in regular communication with spouses, parents, grandparents, siblings, other relatives, friends, and associates who were close to them before passing. And they lose whatever fear of death they might have had, as they become confident that existence continues.

Unfinished Business

Communicating with those who have passed gives us an opportunity to wrap up loose ends. Family members are sometimes at odds with each other, lovers quarreling, siblings squabbling, friends bickering. It happens; it’s a part of life. But we seldom know in advance when we’ve reached the end of our physical lives. Sometimes the physical part ends before the disagreement does, leaving the living steeped in grief and guilt.

Contact with the spirit that has passed can give both parties the chance to mend rifts. Sometimes the contact is direct, in which the spirit of the departed appears to the living loved one and there is a one-to-one communication. Sometimes the contact is indirect, as when a third-party spirit appears to say, “Robert is here. He wants you to know that he is fine and he’s sorry for that argument right before his heart attack. It wasn’t your fault, and his love for you will never die.” There is great comfort in being able to apologize, explain, forgive, reconcile, say “good-bye” or “I love you”—whatever communication needs to take place.

What about spirits who are apparent strangers to us, and don’t have a message from departed loved ones but instead just want to communicate with whatever physical entities they can reach and who will respond? Such spirits typically have their own reasons for making contact. In some way, they need help from you so they can continue their evolution on the higher, or other, side. Perhaps you’re the contact point because you are in a space, such as a house, that belonged to or was familiar to the ghost in its physical existence. Maybe there is something about your life mission that intersects with the spirit’s mission. Such a spirit has unfinished business, and you can help bring completion and resolution for the spirit. We talk more about this in later chapters.

Taking Familiar Form

Spirits often find it necessary to interact with us in ways that we, as physical beings, can experience. We like to see, hear, and touch our environment and all that is within it. After all, that’s the essence of our physical existence. And especially if communication with the spirit world is new to us, we’re more comfortable when we can experience such contact in familiar ways. You might see an image of the person, hear his or her voice, or even smell a favorite fragrance that the person used to wear.

Sometimes the contact might come through someone else, not necessarily a medium (a person who acts as a link, through his or her sensitivity, between the spirit and physical worlds) but perhaps a friend who might say, “I don’t know where this is coming from because your mother has passed away, but I have this image of her in my head and she wants me to tell you that you should not go to the lake this weekend. Instead, you should stay close to home. And she’s saying, for heaven’s sake, paint the living room blue, not beige.” If the words and tone sound just like your mother, don’t panic: It’s just your mother’s spirit with a message for you, coming through in a way you recognize and through a source you trust. So for heaven’s sake, stay home and paint the living room blue!

Personal Growth, Insight, and Empowerment

Communication with the other side might be common, but it is also special. Put it to good use! This is your opportunity to learn about yourself and your purpose in this life. Use the insights you gain to further your life purpose and to leave a positive imprint in this, our physical, world.

Knowledge empowers. It can help you to understand why you feel and act as you do, so you can direct your energy in positive ways. What you learn through your contacts with spirit entities can help you heal emotional wounds, physical ailments, and get your life on track.

Sometimes the insights that come to you through spirit communication are intense, or even disturbing. It can be helpful to have someone you can turn to, to discuss your feelings and concerns. There are professionals who combine psychic consultation with conventional therapeutic approaches. Chapters 13 and 24 provide more information about moving from insight to changes in your life.

Silver Cord

The venerable Gallup Organization surveys Americans on nearly any topic that could come up during dinner conversation. In a June 2001 poll, 38 percent of participants said they believed it is possible to have contact or communication with the spirits of people who have died. Fifty-four percent said they believed in psychic or spiritual healing, and 42 percent believed that houses could be haunted.

Do You See Dead People?

Rita Berkowitz, co-author of this book, is a certified medium and ordained minister in the Spiritualist Church. She began drawing faces when she was a child. At the time she thought these were of imaginary people and didn’t recognize that this was what she was doing; she just drew what she saw. Now, as an adult with many years of education and experience that have broadened and deepened her knowledge, understanding, and skills, Rita receives spirit communication through drawing and other forms (we talk more about these in later chapters).

Do you receive spirit communication? Answer these questions to find out!

1. Have you felt sudden changes of temperature? If you’re a woman in midlife, we’re not talking hot flashes here! Often, spirit presence results in sudden and unexplainable temperature jumps up or down. Cold in particular is associated with the presence of a spirit. You might walk down a hallway and feel as though you’ve walked into a refrigerator. Less commonly, you might be sitting in your favorite chair when it feels like someone’s cranked up the heat.

2. Do you see sudden lights? Spirits are energy, and light is an expression of energy. Floating or flickering lights often suggest the presence of spirits. Orbs (also called ghost orbs, ghost lights, or earth lights) are a particular form of presence, well documented and often photographed.

Premonition

Although we discuss seeing sudden lights here in the context of what this might suggest about the presence of spirits, it’s important to recognize that this phenomenon can also suggest certain eye disorders. If you notice any interference with your vision, contact your eye-care professional.

In October 2001, Rita went to Arthur Findley College in Stansted, England, to spend a week studying mediumship. Earlier in the day Rita experienced an independent voice while walking through the beautiful gardens on the grounds. She decided to take a photograph of the gardens from the window of her room. When she got the developed photo back, the image of shimmering light appeared.

3. Have you ever seen an image out of the corner of your eye? Can you identify that image? Many people report seeing vaguely human shapes or shadows in their peripheral vision. Some can further report, if they don’t give it too much thought or analysis, that the figure was a young girl in a nightgown or sure looked like Uncle Albert even though he’s been gone for 15 years now. Yet turning your head to look directly at the image generally reveals nothing, which might cause you to doubt whether you actually did see anything.

4. Have you had a discarnate spirit visit you in a dream? It’s often a source of comfort to those grieving the loss of loved ones to have their loved ones appear in dreams. Sometimes the dreams are reenactments of events that took place when the loved one was still in the physical plane. Other times the dreams appear to be messages from the loved one, attempting to reassure and convey love.

5. Has your mind suddenly (and out of context) been brought back to a specific time and place, with a loved one who has passed? Somewhat like a waking dream, this phenomenon could be the work of a spirit that wants you to know it is still with you and remains part of your everyday life. Activating the memory of an event that was meaningful to both of you is one way the spirit can validate its identity to you and demonstrate the continuity of life.

6. Do you sometimes smell a specific scent that reminds you of a particular loved one? It could be that this scent still lingers in places the two of you frequented, such as your home or car. And sure, it could be that someone else is wearing the fragrance or has a similar smell. But smell is a sense that activates the emotions and memory, again creating validation. Many times it is a particular smell, such as of brewing coffee or breath mints, unique to the person who has passed, that provides clues that the person’s spirit is still present.

7. Have you ever felt a touch, or maybe the sensation that you’re walking into a spider web? Sometimes a spirit attempts to “reach out and touch”—which, of course, isn’t especially practical for an intangible, discarnate entity! You might feel the energy of the spirit’s presence making contact with your skin. Also, there is a phenomenon called transfiguration in which a spirit’s ectoplasm flows around you.

8. Do you ever hear voices when you know you are alone, or hear voices that no one else hears? You might have the sense of “hearing” a particular word, phrase, sound, or even a song or piece of music. It might be obvious enough that you can connect it with a person who has passed, or it might puzzle you because it doesn’t seem connected to anything in particular. This phenomenon is called clairaudience. With focus and concentration, you can often gain increasing clarity until you actually hear the message.

Spiritology

Transfiguration takes place when a spirit’s physical characteristics superimpose over a medium’s features, presenting an image of the spirit entity. Ectoplasm is a substance spirits produce to make themselves visible; comes from the Greek words ecto, meaning “outside,” and plasma, meaning “a thing formed.”

9. Have you had a sense that something has happened to someone you love, and later found out that the person was in an accident or experienced some other traumatic event? Not all spirit communication takes place across the border between the physical and spiritual planes. Spirits inhabiting bodies can make contact, too. The most common such contact is a phenomenon called crisis telepathy, in which you get an image of an event, or even just a sense that something has happened to a loved one.

10. Have you been to a place or touched an object and gotten an image or sensory activation (sound, smell, taste) of a person or an event? Perhaps you walk into the office and immediately know that a colleague is pregnant even before she’s felt comfortable telling anyone in the office! She can’t figure out how you know, but it’s really just psychometry—the ability to “read” energy information given off by people and objects. You might be able to touch an antique table and instantly visualize the image of a pioneer woman in her white blouse and long, bustled skirt placing a letter on the table.

While in England studying at Arthur Findley College, Rita toured Bath and stopped for lunch at the Priory, a beautiful hotel and restaurant. Again, the shimmering light appeared. The Abbey in Bath proved quite magnificent, with an overwhelming feeling of spirit presence. When Rita’s photo came back from the developer, a beautiful light radiated in the bottom of the photo with no explanation for its presence.

Experiences such as these are far more commonplace than most people realize. Other people who are with you at the time might also feel a spirit presence, as often happens in a circle, although it is less likely because the spirit making contact is not personal to them.

Spiritology

A circle is a group of people, usually having mediumistic abilities, who gather to connect with spirit entities.

Activating Your Mediumistic Abilities

Everyone has the ability to communicate with spirits. Many people simply don’t use this ability, just as they might not use other abilities that they have, such as singing or writing. But spirits are always all around us. Discovering their presence and establishing connections just requires awareness and focus.

Sometimes this is as simple as sitting in a quiet room and allowing yourself to experience all of the energies in the room. From this is likely to emerge a sense of the presence of others—spirits. With practice, you can focus on certain spiritual presences to the exclusion of others, gaining a clearer image or impression. And with more practice, you can focus in such a way as to establish contact with a particular spirit (provided the spirit is willing).

Just as it’s important to learn the proper techniques for any activity that blends ability and skill, you need to learn what to do and how to do it, so that your experiences remain positive and provide knowledge and healing.

In Your Dreams

A common setting for communication between we mortals and those of the spirit realm is the dream. In the dream state, the conscious filters of your brain are turned off. As a result, dreams often teem with vivid and otherworldly images that seem as natural and real as the world we inhabit when awake. We don’t doubt or question these images; at best, we look at them as insights or lessons, and at worst, we simply dismiss them as “just dreams.” This makes dreams a natural environment for spirit contacts that we might otherwise reject or ignore.

Spirit contact in the dreamscape can take any number of forms. Sometimes departed loved ones appear as living, tangible beings—often younger and more vibrant than in life as we remember them. (This is often how the spirits of loved ones in other visitations appear, too; more on this in later chapters.) We might engage with these images, in our dreams, much as we used to in real life. We might play out the life we wanted to have. Or the dream may have no correlation to real events and circumstances. This is the beauty and the power of dreams: Anything goes.

Mediums and Messages

One of the themes in spirit contact dreams relates to travel. For example, the dreamer might be driving along a familiar road and stop to pick up a hitchhiker that he or she recognizes as a loved one, or go to the airport to meet a loved one’s incoming flight. These settings make sense; after all, the visiting spirits are on a cosmic journey of sorts, traveling through time and space to call on us.

Occasionally, a dream visit from a spirit brings a message or even a warning. This could be about anything. Some of the most common and dramatic messages relate to health issues. A departed loved one might appear in a dream to tell you to schedule an appointment to have the doctor check out that mole on your neck. You do, and it turns out to be skin cancer, caught in the earliest stages so it ends up being nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Ignoring these messages causes the dreams to become more persistent and perhaps more graphic or startling, until finally you “get” it and see the doctor.

Premonition

Sometimes spirit visitation dreams are more symbolic than practical, and it takes some detective work to figure them out. If such dreams puzzle you, don’t just dismiss them as nonsense. There are many good books on dream interpretation (see Appendix B for some to get you started) that can help you understand the meanings of the symbols and images that occur in your dreams.

The tone of most spirit visitation dreams is one of comfort and reassurance. The loved one might feel your sadness and sense of loss, and want you to know that the connection remains strong despite the physical separation. The spirit typically appears as whole, happy, and healthy; we know instantly that all is well. And this is the point. The visit is to reassure you, through images and experiences that make sense in the context of your physical world, that everything is okay. The message is clear: “Feel happy for me, because I am at peace.”

Calling All Spirits

Spirits aren’t just sitting around on the other side, waiting for opportunities for contact with you. (Well, most aren’t, anyway.) Often, you need to ask them to make themselves available for communication.

In the chapters that follow, we help you identify and clarify your interests and reasons for contacting the spirit world, and give you methods and approaches to help you make the contact you desire. And in Chapter 10 we talk about how to find a qualified, competent, and honest psychic professional who can guide you in your efforts.

Tell Me What You Want, and I’ll Give You What You Need

When you’re new to the processes of consciously communicating with spirits, you might feel disappointed and even skeptical when the contact or information that you receive isn’t what you wanted. Relax. This is fairly common. As beings more knowledgeable than we physical entities, discarnate spirits tell us what we are ready to hear.

As physical beings, we have a tendency to want The Answer. What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? When am I going to die? We aren’t always seeking, or willing to accept, just answers or, less definitive still, just information. Yet just as it is the small stuff that matters in physical life, it’s the little things that matter in the bigger picture. And sometimes we—physical and spirit entities—have differences of opinion about what matters.

On the verge of separating from her husband of 20 years, Caroline came to Rita for a reading. In the sitting, Rita got an image of the Braintree Split, a local landmark that was a fork in the road. In this image, Rita saw the skies open up and the vision of Caroline’s grandparents, whose identities were clear to Caroline. They said, “Stay with him, work this through.” Caroline didn’t really want to hear this message, but decided to give it a try. She’s now been happily married 33 years!

If you’ve made contact with the spirit world and you’re not getting the information you want or you don’t understand the information you’re receiving, take a look at what you’re asking. Does your question match up with what you really want to know? Sometimes we ask one question, yet actually want information of a different sort than the answer will produce.

The more specific your question, the more clear your focus and the more likely you are to receive the response you seek. You might ask, “What is it like on the other side?” when really what you want to know is, “Do you still love me, even though you’ve passed on and now exist in a realm I can’t share with you?” Your loved one’s contact with you is, in itself, evidence that the answer to your real, even if unasked question, is a resounding “Yes!”

With experience, you’ll gain understanding and confidence that will help you ask the right questions and make sense of the answers that you receive. Chapter 4 provides more information about this. There’s really no great mystery to getting useful information from the spirit world!

When You Just Know: Trust Your Intuition

Sometimes we speak of intuition as the sixth sense (the other five being those of tangibility: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting). Intuition makes use of the other senses, and can also enhance them. Typically when we talk about intuitive messages, we say things like, “I feel” or “I sense.” A person who is in tune with this sixth sense might say, “I intuit.”

One dictionary defines intuition as “immediate cognition.” You just know, instantly and unequivocally—and often act accordingly. You might suddenly turn left when your usual commute route turns right, then hear on the radio that there was a horrible accident just beyond the intersection at which you would’ve turned right had you followed your regular route. Chance or coincidence? We don’t think so!

Premonition

Allowing your conscious mind to override your intuition can make your intuition appear faulty when it’s really right on target. Intuition is immediate; anything longer is intervention from your conscious mind.

When it comes to contact with spirits, intuition becomes your most powerful tool and your most reliable guide. Your other five senses aren’t of much value when it comes to evaluating experiences that are not tangible. But your intuition can tell you whether you’re right on … or whether it’s time to move on. However illogical it might seem at times, your intuition will never lead you astray.

How do you know when it truly is your intuition, and not just your feelings of grief, sorrow, or longing? This isn’t always easy, particularly if your feelings are intense. If you are concerned about whether an apparent contact or communication is authentic, consider consulting a medium. This brings in a “third party” who doesn’t have knowledge of your past or the many little details only someone who was close to you would know.

A medium certified with the Spiritualist Church, such as co-author Rita, has extensive training and skill in validating a spirit’s identity before sharing the contact with the person who is requesting it. Spirits typically offer authenticating information in the form of knowledge no one else—at least not the medium—would have. This might be a nickname or recollection of an event, or mention of a favorite fragrance or food—whatever can conclusively establish that the spirit is who he or she says … or you believe. If a medium cannot authenticate a spirit’s identity, then you can be fairly certain other factors are at play, such as your feelings.

Bringing Us Goodness and Light

The most important thing to remember about communicating with spirits is that such communication is a gift through which you can do good for yourself and for others. Spirits allow or initiate contact so they can help us … and many times we can help them.

Is there a dark element to the other side? Inasmuch as there is a dark element in our physical world, probably. There are always those who seem capable of distorting good to do bad. Horror movies make the most of this potential. But what they’re really doing is exploiting our fears, especially the fear of the unknown and unprovable. And judging by the popularity of these films, there’s plenty of fear to exploit!

But communicating with spirits is not about fear, evil, or darkness. Rather, spirit communication is about love, goodness, and light. If you believe that goodness guides existence, as your authors do, then you know that the spirits of loved ones who have passed on, guardian spirits, and other spirit entities want to help us, not hurt us. (And sometimes they want us to help them, too.) The pursuit of goodness frames our existence and purpose, physical and spiritual.

That is the focus of this book: to help you communicate with your spirit guides, spirit guardians, and loved ones to find comfort, reassurance, and answers. You might be seeking closure, reconciliation, or guidance on the passage through your physical life. Your reasons for wanting to communicate across the boundary of physical existence are as unique as anything else about you. This book seeks to provide you with the understanding and tools you need to make the contact you desire.

Let your journey begin!

The Least You Need to Know

• Love is the energy that connects our physical world with the spirit world.

• There are many ways to experience contact and communication with spirits.

• Dreams are familiar settings for spirit contacts.

• Everyone has the ability to communicate with spirits, but many people don’t use it.

• Spirits want to help us, and to bring goodness into our lives.

• Sometimes spirit contact gives us the opportunity to help the spirit move onward in its evolution.

Chapter 2

Divine Purpose

In This Chapter

• Customs of ancient cultures

• The mythology of “crossing over”

• Completing the soul’s journey

• Spirits among us

• Celebrating the continuity of spirit

There is a divine purpose in spirit communication, and its history throughout humanity stands as incontrovertible evidence. Nearly every religion or faith system in the world today, and indeed throughout history, incorporates some element of belief in an existence beyond life in the physical world. These beliefs transcend the boundaries of religion to demonstrate a nearly universal acceptance of the soul’s ongoing existence.

Such beliefs do not contradict religious frameworks that support reincarnation, the promise of heaven, a unity of spirit, or other tenets that define a particular faith or religion. Beliefs in the soul’s continuation beyond the death of the physical body are part of many faith systems, supported by and supporting a diverse and vast number of faiths. And they share in common the fundamental principle that knowledge and light lead the way to communication that is for goodness and healing.

Preparing for the Afterlife

Through the ages, there have been many diverse customs and practices related to the passage of the spirit from the physical world to the spirit world—death. However, they are consistent in their reflection that human beings have probably always believed in the continuation of the soul’s existence after the physical body dies. Throughout history, most cultures have viewed death as a passage to another level of being. Burial traditions remain as tangible evidence of this view.

Silver Cord

It wasn’t until the advent of Buddhism in India around the sixth century B.C.E. that historical documents reflected the concept that life might not end with the death of the physical body. Few faith systems picked this up, however, and today it is a view that remains restricted to just a few faiths.

Spiritology

The Paleolithic period began two and a half million years ago and is considered the dawn of modern humankind. Often referred to as the Stone Age, it was the time when humans began creating tools and implements out of stone and other natural materials. This was the point of development at which humans became clearly distinct from other animals.

The most staid and venerable of reference resources, Encyclopedia Britannica, Fifteenth Edition, says: “Death rites and customs stem from an instinctive inability or refusal on the part of man to accept death as the definitive end of human life; they thus reflect the belief that human beings survive death in some form and represent the practical measures taken to assist the dead to achieve their destiny ….”

As the earliest archaeological evidence dating to about 50000 B.C.E. (the time of Paleolithic, or Stone Age, humans) demonstrates, human beings have always viewed the end of this life as a preparation for the next. Many of these preparations involve the physical body, from dressing it in the finest attire to embalming it to prevent its deterioration. Although in modern times we might think of these procedures as simply part of the funeral preparation, they are in fact persistent evidence of our conviction that there is, so to speak, life after life. Even the tradition of cremation that has emerged in some cultural traditions such as Native American and Hindu reflects a releasing of the spirit from its physical body so that it can be free to exist as a spirit.

Will we need these physical bodies we now inhabit when we move beyond our current lives? Nearly all prevailing belief systems say no. Rather, they hold that there is a discarnate (without a physical body) existence beyond the physical existence, in which a body is not necessary. Earlier cultures, however, were less certain of this and often buried loved ones with a supply of food, water, and sometimes even furnishings, jewelry, and other accoutrements that might be necessary or useful for survival in the next world.

Awaiting Rebirth

If you’re about to enter a new existence, it makes sense that you should be in the proper position. This seems to have been the belief of the Paleolithic peoples who once roamed the plains of what is now Europe. Archaeologists have uncovered numerous skeletons curled into fetal positions, apparently in readiness for “birth” into their next lives. Uncovered burial sites also contained food and stone implements such as hammers and knives.

We don’t have any way of knowing conclusively what these early humans actually believed about life or death. There are no written records or even drawings to document these prehistoric times. But the archaeological findings strongly suggest that Paleolithic humans viewed death as a transition, not an end. They greatly anticipated and eagerly welcomed the birth of each new child; it seems reasonable to conclude that they would also celebrate and honor the passing into the next life.

Just as they communicated among each other in the physical world, perhaps they communicated with those in the spirit world. We do know, from archaeological evidence, such as drawings and etchings on rocks and in caves, that later humans did have such beliefs. And we know that the few cultures living in a relatively Stone Age manner today, also appear to have such beliefs.

With the inner eye of your imagination, it’s easy to see a small group gathered around a fresh mound of earth that marks the place where a group member has been returned to the womb of Mother Earth, singing and dancing in celebration of this transition, just as the group might gather in joy and happiness to welcome an infant’s birth.

Crossing the River

By the time ancient Greek and Roman civilization dominated much of the Western world, the “other side” had become a tangible place. This perception grew from the mythology of the time and became a crucial element of the era’s philosophy. Mythology gave the ancient Greeks and Romans their gods, which then framed their beliefs and social customs.

In this ancient mythology, Hades was the god who ruled the souls of those who passed from physical life. Because the living resided on the ground and the gods inhabited the heavens, the kingdom of Hades was underground, or the Underworld. Its location within the earth established it as a place the living could not go, and provided for a physical separation between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

There was no judgment of good or evil involved, and Hades was not the counterpart to the “devil” of later belief systems. Hades was not a place, even though the word became a handy substitute in seventeenth-century England for what had become a vulgar term, “Hell,” which was a most unpleasant location indeed!

Spiritology

Mythology is a collection of a culture’s popular beliefs used to explain the unknown, such as the origin of life, to define acceptable behavior, and to teach moral lessons. Philosophy is a formal system or structure for studying and applying a society’s beliefs and standards.

Because the Underworld was a place from which no one returned, mythology evolved a barrier to separate the world of the living from the final home of the eternal soul, the river Styx. Upon the body’s death, the soul had to make what could be a treacherous crossing to get to the other side, where happiness and loved ones who had already passed awaited. The boatman who ferried souls across the river Styx was a monstrous creature named Charon who demanded advance payment from his passengers in exchange for the labor of his services.

Of course, these souls were no longer of the physical world and could not make payment themselves, so it was up to their living relatives or friends to buy safe passage for them. They did this by placing a coin in the mouth of the departed. Charon extracted the coin and allowed the soul to board his boat, which he then steered through the roiling waters of the Styx to the other side.

Making it to the other side wasn’t quite the end of the journey for the soul, however. Once across the river, there was a gate that blocked passage to the world of eternity. Cerberus, the three-headed dog with a voracious appetite, guarded the gate and could only be distracted from his duties by being fed. So the living relatives of the departed put a cake of honey with the body as payment to Cerberus for entry into the Underworld. Only then could the soul pass through the gate to be reunited for all eternity with the loved ones who had already made their passages.

Only Charon could navigate the perilous river and because there was no way to pay the fare for the return passage, he never brought anyone back. Although the physical person couldn’t return to the world of the living, the spirit, however, could. Ghosts, visible images of the departed, often appeared to the living, and engaged freely in communication with those in the physical world. After taking up residence in the Underworld, the soul could appear as a vision and speak with the living. Soldiers often called on the souls of great warriors who had passed on, to be by their sides in battle and help them to great victory. If that was not to be, they guided them to the shores of the river Styx for their own journeys to the palace of Hades and to eternal life.

Ancient Roman beliefs and practices were similar to those of the Greeks. Some of the names were different—the river the Romans crossed was the Acheron, for example.

Premonition

Determining death in ancient times was less than precise. It was so common for a person to “come back to life,” in fact, that Greek law required a waiting period of three days between the declaration of death and the burial of the body. The many “awakenings” that took place during the three-day waiting period no doubt reinforced the belief in the continuation of life.

Embalming and the Circle of Necessity

The ancient Egyptians were the first to systematically preserve the physical body after death to prevent its decay and deterioration by using the process of embalming. The term originally meant “to apply balm,” a reference to the early practice of covering a dead body in fragrant oils and spices. The ancient Egyptians believed that once the soul left the body it embarked on a long spiritual journey, called the “circle of necessity,” after which it would seek to return to the body it had left behind in the physical world. This made it necessary to preserve the body for the duration of the soul’s expedition, typically identified as 3,000 years, so the soul would be able to return to its body and live again.

Because a properly prepared and preserved body was so essential for the soul to complete its journey through the circle of necessity, only priests could perform embalming. In fact, this preparation for the soul’s journey was so important that it took place behind the walls of the Necropolis … “death city.”

The typical embalming procedure involved removing and carefully storing the body’s organs, including the brain, in special urns called canopic jars. Resin was then poured into the jars to prevent the organs from deteriorating. After soaking in a salt solution called natron for as long as 70 days, the body was dried and wrapped in long, resin-soaked strips of cloth—creating what we call a mummy.

What we think of as traditional mummification was actually a service available only to ancient Egyptians who could afford it. The poor received a much less sophisticated embalming process, which involved soaking the body in the salt solution and then placing it in a common burial chamber.

The mummified body was then placed in a coffin or crypt of some sort, with the urns containing its organs surrounding it. The crypt was then carefully sealed; after all, it had to preserve its contents for 3,000 years so the soul could return to claim its body when the journey was complete. Without a body to return to, the soul was destined to travel endlessly, unable to come full circle into its new life.

While the soul was on its 3,000-year journey, it was not possible to communicate with it. It was common, however, to offer prayers for its safe travels and happy return. And of course, only through legend was there any “evidence” of a spirit returning to claim its well-preserved body. No one lived long enough to provide eyewitness proof!

The concept of the circle of necessity was common in other ancient cultures as well, such as the Celts and some tribes in Peru. And today it is an element of belief systems, such as some forms of Hinduism, although preservation of the body is no longer essential. The soul’s journey is one of spiritual growth and enlightenment that leads to a higher spiritual existence rather than a return to a physical life.

Spirits Among the Living

You might feel, see, and hear the presence of loved ones who have passed. This might happen during times of crisis, or it might be a normal part of your everyday life. If you’re accustomed to these visitors you probably find them comforting, as did the ancient Japanese. They believed that when the spirit left the body at death, it entered into existence as a kami, a spirit entity or supernatural being. Death was not a process of leaving but rather a transition into another form.

Spiritology

A kami is the spirit of a departed family member that remains among the family and community. It comes from the Japanese word for “divine.” As an element of the Shintō religion, kamis can also be the spirits of deities and of things from nature.

A kami remained a part of the family and the community, participating in important decisions and offering guidance. People who in life were good and helpful become benefactors and protectors as kamis; people who in life were not so good become troublesome kamis. Just as in physical life, the good and the bad were simply part of the mix. Kamis who had been leaders and heroes in physical life were more powerful spirit entities than those who had been ordinary citizens. A few, like kings and rulers, became god-like as kamis.

The belief in kamis became the foundation for Shintō, Japan’s indigenous, or native, religion. Within Shintō, kamis could be deities (gods and goddesses), ancestral spirits (family members), animals, and even other natural things such as trees. Despite their presence in everyday life, kamis remained unseen and unheard except to those with special powers to communicate with them. Today we would call such people mediums—those who could intervene to halt a disruptive kami’s actions or to encourage help from a benevolent kami. Many of these interventions, according to legend, had to do with healing, either to rid a family or village of illness or to bring health to an individual.

Otherwise, communication with kamis came in the guise of actions and events. Fortune, good or bad, was considered the work of kamis. Every family’s home had a shrine to honor its kamis, and throughout the countryside there were (and in many places still are) shrines to honor important kamis, typically deities and heroes. Through these shrines, people could share messages with kamis. Buddhism eventually incorporated some elements of Shintō, among them the concept of kamis, which spread the belief into other cultures and societies, including China and India.

Contemporary Belief in the Continuity of Spirit

Nearly every contemporary faith incorporates some degree of belief in the continuity of spirit. We’ll just touch on some of the key concepts here; Appendix B contains references for those who want to know more about specific religious beliefs.

Celebrations of spirit exist in many cultures. Most had their roots in belief systems of some sort, and now have migrated into popular culture. There must be something about the end of autumn as it transitions into winter that makes it an apparent window between the physical world and the spirit world. Celebrations and festivals had their origins in pagan religious practices that have made their way into various faith systems. (Pagan beliefs allow worship of multiple deities, gods, goddesses, and natural events such as the changing of the seasons. They are typically contrasted to belief systems based on worship of a single, omnipotent God, such as in Christianity and Judaism.) The Festival of Samhain, for example, has become the Christian celebrations All Hallow’s Eve (falling on October 31) and All Saint’s Day (falling on November 1).

Awaken, Spirits!

October 31 was the last day of the ancient Celtic year and the Festival of Samhain, the Celtic god of the dead. As one year became another, the Celts believed, the spirits of the dead could return from the beyond to share joy and happiness with their living loved ones. Feasting, dancing, and singing celebrated this opportunity. Enormous bonfires lit the night sky, welcoming revelers and spirits alike.

But fearing that some of the returning spirits might have less than honorable intentions, people often donned masks and costumes to hide their true identities. The good spirits of departed friends and relatives of course knew those behind the masks and could make contact for a joyous reunion. The light of dawn, marking the start of the Celtic New Year, recalled the spirits to the spirit world.

Today we know this festival as Halloween, and its modern celebration has little to do with its Celtic origins. For most people, it is nothing more than an excuse to dress up in costumes (and perhaps behave in ways that cause them to be grateful their identities are hidden)—and for children, to acquire enough candy to keep dentists very busy for yet another year!

Mediums and Messages

Do you feel a little extra energy in the air on All Hallow’s Eve? Do you have a sense that there is a presence around you that you don’t ordinarily feel? Perhaps it is the spirits of your loved ones, taking the opportunity of heightened awareness to attempt a connection with you. Many people experience such contacts around this time of the year as well as throughout the year.

A Communion of Spirits

In 835, Pope Gregory IV proclaimed that the last day in October was to be known within the Catholic Church as All Hallow’s Eve, or “All Holy Evening.” On this date, he decreed, Catholics everywhere were to gather and remember those who had given their lives in the name of their faith. The next day, November 1, became All Saint’s Day (also called All Soul’s Day), a time to remember all who had passed on.

The Catholic Church views this “communion of spirits” as a reminder that there is a continuous link between the souls of the living and the souls of the dead. Says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church’s official teachings, “Between them there is an abundant exchange of all good things.” Various Protestant religions also observe these celebrations.

Day of the Dead

This doesn’t sound like a very joyous celebration, but in fact the Day of the Dead is quite festive. The tradition started long ago with the Aztecs, who once inhabited the land we now know as Mexico, to honor the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, who ruled the dead. Even in Aztec times this was a happy celebration, praising Mictecacihuatl for watching over the souls of those who had passed into her realm. There were several days of dancing, singing, and feasting, during which the spirits of the departed also joined in the festivities.

Through the centuries, the influences of other cultures and belief systems realigned the Day of the Dead to take place during Christian celebrations of All Saint’s Day during the last days of October and first days of November. Today, the official celebration of the Mexican Day of the Dead takes place on November 2. Families and friends gather at the gravesites of loved ones, or establish shrines in their homes, to tell stories and remember those who have passed.

It is said that you can feel the spirits reveling right alongside their living relatives! There is also much feasting and drinking, with small offerings of the departed’s favorite foods and drinks (and even tobacco if the person was a smoker) at the graveside or on the shrine’s altar.

Finding Your Own Divine Purpose

We all have our reasons for wanting to establish and maintain a personal “communion of spirits.” Yours might be linked to your faith system or religious practices, or the result of an independent belief in the continuity of the spirit. Traditions through the history of humankind and formalized celebrations within organized religions today affirm that such desires are nearly universal. And these desires are positive. They are rooted in love and in goodness—truly what we would consider divine purpose, connections for a greater good. This is the essence of communicating with spirits.

The Least You Need to Know

• Cultures throughout all of human history have had some sort of belief in the soul’s existence beyond physical death.

• The belief that the spirits of those who have passed on return to visit or even “hang around” in the physical world is common throughout the world.

• Many faiths and religions incorporate belief in the eternal spirit into their practices.

• Divine purpose is both universal and personal, and defines spirit communication as connection for a greater good.

Chapter 3

Spiritualism: Continuity of the Spirit

In This Chapter

• Humble beginnings in Hydesville, New York

• The clairvoyant writings of Andrew Jackson Davis

• Beyond Sherlock Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s interest in Spiritualism

• Doubters and frauds

• The role of the medium in Spiritualism

• Spiritualism’s link to the divine

Many of the world’s faith systems incorporate some concept of a soul’s continuing existence after the death of the physical body. But just one, Spiritualism, is actually founded on these concepts. Spiritualism accepts that spirit communication is a natural and common occurrence in the physical world that has been taking place throughout the history of human existence, and that much healing and good can come from it.

Like all belief systems, Spiritualism comes with its own traditions—the stories and experiences that make up its history and heritage. Some are entertaining, while some are inspiring. Collectively, they reflect the evolution of Spiritualist thinking from random communication with spirits to the purposeful connections modern Spiritualist mediums make. Spiritualism today has much to offer to those seeking to understand our human spiritual resources, and the many ways in which spirits, in and out of the human body, interact and evolve.

But before we get into that, let’s time-travel through the evolution of Spiritualism. Sit back and put up your feet … it’s time to meet the characters and circumstances that have taken Spiritualism through its rise, near-fall, and revival in the world today.

Two Sisters and a Ghost

Modern Spiritualism came into popular practice in 1848 when two sisters—Catherine and Margaretta Fox—moved with their parents into a small house in Hydesville, New York. Their story is well documented through an affidavit Mrs. Fox wrote about the family’s experiences, as well as through numerous anecdotes from those who heard about the strange communication that the Fox sisters established with a ghost who already resided—unwillingly and unhappily—in the house.

On December 11, 1847, the Fox family moved into its Hydesville home, which was to be a temporary residence while the family’s new house was being built. Almost immediately, they heard noises in the night. Not being familiar with the history of the house, they tried to ignore the strange sounds that kept them awake. But on March 4, 1848, the bangs and rap-pings became particularly loud. Catherine and Margaretta were very frightened and ran to their parents’ bedroom. The parents, too, were awake and listening, and walked through the rest of the house to try to find the cause of all the racket.

Spiritology

Spiritualism is a faith system based on belief in the continuity of life beyond physical death.

There were knocks on the pantry door and footsteps in the hallway. Windows and doors were closed tight; nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Yet the rapping, banging, and thumping continued even as the Foxes searched the house. “I then concluded that the house must be haunted by some unhappy restless spirit,” Mrs. Fox later wrote in her affidavit about the family’s experiences.

The frightened sisters decided they were going to sleep in their parents’ room until the noises ceased. After a week or so, they began to feel more comfortable. One night, Catherine, feeling brave in the safety of her parents’ bed, said, “Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do!” and she clapped her hands. To her amazement, she heard clapping in response. Then Margaretta clapped one, two, three, four … and heard back one, two, three four raps!

The girls called for their mother. Mrs. Fox took over the questioning, determined to get to the bottom of the situation. She tested the visitor’s knowledge by asking it to rap the number of children she had. Seven raps. She asked again; she had just six children. Seven raps again. Puzzled at first, Mrs. Fox then asked how many of those children were living. Six raps. No one outside the family knew that the youngest Fox child, little Emily, had passed as an infant some years earlier.

With a simple code—two raps for “yes”—and more counting, Mrs. Fox extracted the information that this was indeed a ghost, a man who had been murdered in the house by a man who had once lived there. Not knowing the history of the house’s residents, Mrs. Fox asked her neighbors, the Redfields, who had lived in the area all of their lives, to come over. As it turned out, the Redfields had once lived in the house and knew of the other families who had also called it home. Again, there was an exchange of names and raps. Mr. Redfield went through the list of names of the house’s former residents until one name—Bell—returned two raps, the signal for “yes.” Frustratingly, however, the neighbor wasn’t able to identify the ghost. Finally, Mrs. Fox hit upon the solution. She worked out a code to identify the letters of the alphabet, and instructed the spirit to rap once for each letter of his name. The questioning eventually elicited the name of one Charles Rosna, who, other neighbors later recalled, had been a traveling peddler who had disappeared six years earlier.

Further questioning brought forth the claim that Rosna’s body was buried in the cellar. Neighbors who rushed to dig for the body were unable to locate anything, because a high water table just a few feet beneath the basement’s earthen floor flooded into the basement as soon as they dug into it, leaving Rosna’s fate unproven. Or was it? In the summer of 1848, when the weather became dry, the Foxes and some of their curious neighbors went back into the basement. This time they were able to dig deeper, unearthing bone fragments and a peddler’s bag.

It was evidence enough to launch the Fox sisters into careers as mediums. They soon discovered that it wasn’t only their resident spirit with whom they could communicate. It seemed they could summon spirits of all sorts, spirits eager to make contact with loved ones in the physical world.

The sisters quickly became well known even beyond their local community. Hundreds of people flocked to their home for spirit communication. In 1849, Margaretta Fox gave a demonstration of her mediumship abilities in New York City, which sealed her fame. Much of the time, the famous were among those who came to her during her career as a medium, including author James Fennimore Cooper (who penned The Last of the Mohicans, among other stories) and William Cullen Bryant, poet, attorney, and editor of New York’s Evening Post. The media dubbed the sisters and those who believed in their abilities “Spiritualists”—and a movement was born.

Mediums and Messages

The November 23, 1904, edition of the Boston Journal carried an article that claimed a skeleton had finally been discovered in the basement of the old Fox house. Children playing in the basement discovered a false wall, behind which the bones apparently belonging to Charles Rosna rested. The wall had been constructed directly beneath the kitchen and pantry, the location where the Foxes had heard all the knocking, rapping, and footsteps.

The Poughkeepsie Seer

The events that catapulted the Fox sisters to fame as mediums and established Spiritualism as a movement did not just happen out of the blue, of course. Others had been exploring the relationship between body and spirit, some from within the context of religion and others from the framework of science. Just before the Foxes moved to Hydesville, another New Yorker, Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) published what was to become a breakthrough work for him and for Spiritualism: The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind.

As a young child, Davis showed strong psychic abilities. When the family moved to Poughkeepsie, Davis encountered a tailor who detected these abilities and discovered that Davis could use them for medical diagnosis. At the age of 18, Davis had a metaphysical experience that changed the course of his life. In what was either a trance state or a visitation, Davis met the spirit of famed theologian and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1722) who had died more than 100 years before Davis was born.

It was this visit that produced the book The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, which Davis dictated over the course of more than a year. In the book, he predicted the discovery of the eighth and ninth planets (Neptune and Pluto, respectively), at the direction of Swedenborg. Under Swedenborg’s direction, Davis also wrote Univericoelum (The Spiritual Philosopher). Himself an uneducated man, Davis wrote these and other manuscripts in a ponderous, scholarly, and complex style similar to that of Swedenborg.

When published in 1847, The Principles of Nature met with intense interest among those already interested in the concept of the continuing life of the spirit. It wasn’t until after the events of Hydesville, however, that Davis’s book gained popular attention. Although somewhat cumbersome to comprehend, The Principles of Nature outlined in great detail the interrelationships among human physical existence, the mind, and the spirit (personal as well as divine). The language was complex and technical, making it difficult for the average person to read but affirming its connection to Swedenborg, who wrote in the same style.

Spiritology

Metaphysical means “around the physical” and is a term generally used to describe experiences and events that have no apparent physical explanations. A trance is a state of altered consciousness in which the medium allows a spirit to speak through him or her. A visitation is when a spirit speaks to you rather than through you.

Spiritualism’s Most Famous Advocate: No Mystery Here

In its relatively short existence, Spiritualism has drawn interest and support from a number of famous people. Few were better known than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). You might know of him as creator of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. But did you know this renowned writer was also a physician … and a prominent investigator of psychic phenomena, as well as one of Spiritualism’s most zealous supporters? Although better known as a writer of mystery novels and stories, Doyle was trained and practiced as a physician. In fact, he was knighted in 1902 for his work with military field hospitals in South Africa during the Boer War.

As it turns out, 1902 was a fortuitous year for the good doctor. That was also when he met Sir Oliver Lodge, a renowned physicist of the time who was intrigued by the relationship between the physical world and the realm of human consciousness. He was particularly fascinated with the concept of thought transference—the process of being able to communicate one’s thoughts without physical means such as speaking or writing. Doyle was also interested in this area, and had engaged in some informal research of his own. He respected Lodge and his studies, and found the other scientist’s methods compelling.

After establishing a literary career writing detective and romance novels, Doyle’s interest in thought transference led him to the logical next level, communication between spirits in this world and in the spirit world. He turned his full attention to that and joined the Society for Psychical Research, a prominent and well-respected organization of the time. He also attended mediumistic readings at his friends’ homes, which so intrigued him that he began his own studies with a medium.

In midlife, Doyle published a number of books that were a considerable departure from the fiction that had made him famous: The New Revelation, The Vital Message, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, and the two-volume The History of Spiritualism. These books discussed his research, his conclusions, and his beliefs, all of which strongly advocated Spiritualism.

In his own spirit communication through mediums, Doyle was able to make contact with his son, who was wounded and died during World War I, his mother, and other relatives. These experiences were both comforting and validating for him, and gave a depth to his insights that could only come from such deeply personal contacts. Unfortunately, they also gave rise to criticism from skeptics who felt that Doyle’s grief dulled his scientific senses. But they only strengthened Doyle’s commitment to Spiritualism.

Doyle concluded his literary career in 1930 not with a final Sherlock Holmes adventure but with what he considered a work of enlightenment, The Edge of the Unknown. This book, his last, presented Doyle’s observations and insights about 15 famous mysterious events, such as magician Harry Houdini’s apparent dematerializations and writings from the other side by a number of authors, including Charles Dickens and Jack London.

Silver Cord

Despite their opposing beliefs about Spiritualism, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and magician Harry Houdini (whose real name was Erich Wiess) were good friends. In his book The Edge of the Unknown, Doyle writes of his belief that Houdini had significant psychic abilities, which Houdini denied. Houdini believed mediums were, as he was, simply masters of deception. However, when Houdini’s mother died, he went to a medium who was able to bring her through and convey what she and Houdini had established as the secret message they would use as evidence that life continued beyond death of the physical body.

Doubters, Challengers, and, Sadly, Frauds

Of course, there have always been—and always will be—those who doubt the authenticity of spirit contact and spirit communication. On the one hand, it’s perfectly natural to expect proof or evidence that a spirit communication is authentic (we discuss this in more detail later in this chapter). But there are those who are never satisfied with the evidence as proof.

In the late decades of the nineteenth century, the Spiritualist Church became a formal entity with congregations throughout the Western world. This organization gave a level of credibility to Spiritualism, and established it as a process inextricably linked to the divine (more on this later in this chapter). Spirit contacts were not late-night parlor games, but rather integral elements of a religious institution. This gave increased credibility to Spiritualism, and many of the movement’s early detractors became its most ardent supporters (including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who started his explorations of psychic phenomena from the scientific platform of evidentiary proof).

Spiritualism as an institution has endured its share of scandal through the years, typically the result of fraudulent actions on the part of people acting as mediums. Tragically, those seeking insight and understanding, particularly when driven by grief and desperation, are vulnerable to manipulation. By the 1930s, England had passed the Fraudulent Medium Act and other legislation intended to protect the public from cheats and hoaxsters, which of course didn’t prevent them from scamming the unsuspecting. Over the next few decades, Spiritualism lost popular favor and entered into a period of decline. Although this did nothing to diminish the authenticity of spirit communication, it did leave people somewhat floundering for other ways to address their spiritual needs.

Since the 1970s, however, interest in spirit communication and Spiritualism has been on the rise. This is partly the result of a more open environment with regard to personal freedom and expression and partly the re-emergence of interest in self-healing. The surge of interest in “New Age” concepts that swept through the United States and other parts of the Western world in the 1980s broadened the appeal and acceptance of spirit contact and communication. Although the exact numbers are hard to come by, it’s safe to say that more people practice Spiritualism today than ever in its history.

Mediumship and Spiritualism

Mediumship is an integral part of Spiritualism. Through mediums, spirits communicate with those in the physical world. Mediums who are certified in the Spiritualist Church (as is co-author Rita) undergo extensive training and must pass a series of qualifying examinations (including doing a complete church service with spirit communication to the satisfaction of a board of ordained spiritualist ministers and certified mediums).

Premonition

Before your first visit with a medium, or at least before the reading begins, ask about the medium’s qualifications and training. Expect to hear where the medium received training and certification, how long the medium has been practicing, what kind of mediumship he or she practices, and what other background he or she has. Even though it is the mediumistic abilities that make spirit communication possible, it is his or her life experiences that filter the information coming through.

All mediums have psychic abilities, but not all psychics have mediumistic abilities. (There’s more on this in Chapter 14.) It takes time, focus, and training to develop skill as a medium. It is a Spiritualist medium’s responsibility to prove the continuity of life beyond a shadow of a doubt. This means that when the Spiritualist medium finally begins talking to you with messages from spirits that are present, he or she has a clear sense of what the spirit looks or sounds like, why the spirit is present, and even who the spirit is. This doesn’t mean the medium knows all of this for certain, only that he or she has a good idea about it.

Spiritualism holds that every human being has at least limited mediumistic capacity. Each of us has the ability to communicate with spirits on the other side, if we pay attention to the signals we receive. As is the case with any other ability, some people are more skilled than others.

Mental Phenomena

Do you ever think something, then have a friend call and say it? Must be telepathy! Such events happen often, yet we usually don’t give them a second thought. But do you ever struggle with a dilemma, then “hear” a voice (sounding, to the ear of your mind, suspiciously like your grandmother who passed away five years ago) telling you what to do? If you’re tuned into your psychic senses, you might notice and acknowledge this message. If you’re oblivious to your psychic senses, you might act on the message without understanding its origin or dismiss it from your mind because it isn’t logical.

Spiritology

Telepathy is a process of thought transference in which one person receives information from another without using any physical means.

Such experiences are often mental mediumistic phenomena; that is, a spirit has activated your mediumistic abilities in an attempt to convey a message to you. Of course that was your grandmother’s voice speaking to you from beyond the physical world! You know, as she does, that only she would call you by the childhood nickname she gave you when you spent the summer with her way back when.

When a trained medium receives mental phenomena, they can be quite spectacular. There is countless documentation of mediums delivering messages of detailed instruction for carrying out tasks that the medium knows nothing about. Even writing a book, preparing a seven-course meal, or creating an invention!

Physical Phenomena

Physical mediumship is more advanced and more complex. Not everyone has the mediumistic abilities necessary to receive physical phenomena. Such phenomena might include levitation, materialization, transfiguration—all of which involve the spirit using the medium’s energy to convey its message. Rapping and table-tipping are also physical phenomena (see Chapter 11).

Carolyn came for a sitting and drawing, and a great uncle who was a minister came through. Carolyn said she knew she had a great uncle in the family who wore a clerical collar, but she didn’t know what he looked like. Three months later, her husband was looking through a box of old photos and called out, “I think I found a photo of the man Rita drew for you.” Indeed, it was a match.

Sometimes physical phenomena are quite specialized, putting to use the medium’s special talents. Rita receives physical phenomena in the form of spirit drawing or spirit painting; you’ll see her artwork throughout this book. Other mediums might receive spirit communication through spirit photography or automatic writing (which we’ll talk more about in Chapter 10).

Spiritualism and the Divine

Key to Spiritualism is the conviction that human existence consists of the body, mind, and spirit. The body, made of matter, is the outer, physical shell that contains both the mind and the spirit. The mind, also made of matter but of a different sort, houses the spirit, made of energy. This energy is what links spirits across the border of the physical world and makes spirit communication possible.

Also key to Spiritualism is the conviction that this energy is Light, in that it represents the presence and the power of the divine. As a result, it is good and it is for help and healing. Spirit communication, likewise, is for good and for healing. Spiritualist mediums always begin their readings with a prayer to welcome the Light (the divine) and request its guidance in keeping the reading focused on its intent—which is always to heal in some way.

Although its details change with each reading to be specific to the circumstances, purpose, and person, this is the general prayer Rita uses: “Infinite Spirit God, I ask that you be with me during this reading. I ask that you surround us with white light. I ask that this be healing, helpful, evidential and to prove the continuity of life. I ask that this reading be blessed and that it help this person on his or her path. I give thanks for what we are about to receive. Amen.”

The Power of Intent

To have a mediumistic reading without purpose is like driving without a destination. You certainly could end up someplace interesting and enjoyable, especially if you travel by car a lot and instinctively make the right choices about which direction to go. When the journey is spiritual rather than physical, most people have specific reasons for seeking spirit contact. Many desire contact with specific loved ones in the spirit world. This is one part of intent. It doesn’t always turn out that you get who you want; calling on the divine places the communication in a higher power. In seeking, the divine will give you what you need but not always what you request. People sometimes make promises before they pass, but they can’t always keep them because the choice might not be theirs.

Help and Healing

We’ve emphasized that the primary purpose of spirit communication is help and healing. What this means for you is unique and personal. Perhaps healing is closure following a loved one’s sudden and unexpected passing, to help you move on in your life. You could desire understanding of someone’s behaviors that have affected you in some way. Or you might just want proof that the spirit does continue after physical death, to give meaning and direction to your life.

Prove It!

It is human nature to want “proof,” especially of things that are deeply important to us on a personal level. For the Spiritualist medium, establishing “proof” of the continuity of life is essential with any spirit contact. This is usually not the kind of tangible proof in terms of something you can see or touch. Rather, it is evidence in the form of knowledge that only you and the spirit could share. Perhaps this is the spirit referring to you by a childhood nickname only one person would know. Or reminding you of a long-forgotten event, or giving the answer to a question you didn’t know you were asking. Understanding and insight become clearer, which is how spirits are able to help those of us on this side.

The Appeal of Spiritualism

Spiritualism encourages self-exploration and learning. It fits within just about any religious framework, and perhaps as importantly as any other function, it dispels fear. It is, in fact, nothing more than the function of being spiritual—which we all are, regardless of our belief systems, simply because we are human beings with physical and spiritual selves.

Many of those attracted to the Spiritualist movement as it rose to prominence in the fifty years or so following the Fox sisters were people who challenged and probed the “meaning of life” from various contexts—they were physicians, scientists, writers and poets, artists. But they were also just ordinary people seeking answers to questions everyone has. Spirit communication puts the quest for information into your hands. You determine what to ask, and what to do with the answers you receive. It’s quite empowering, as upcoming chapters will show you!

The Least You Need to Know

• Spiritualism was boosted into popularity after the Fox sisters established communication with a ghost inhabiting the house they moved into in Hydesville, New York.

• The Poughkeepsie Seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, published his breakthrough books on Spiritualism with the help of the spirit of Emanuel Swedenborg, who died more than 100 years before Davis was born.

• There have been many famous supporters of Spiritualism through the years, including the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Proof of the continuity of life is at the core of Spiritualist beliefs and practices.

• Spiritualism as a religion is appealing because people are encouraged to seek answers to the questions they have.

• Spiritualism holds that connections to the spirit world take place through the divine.

Chapter 4

Why Make Contact?

In This Chapter

• Figuring out what you want to know

• Authenticating the continuity of life

• Understanding your reasons for wanting to make contact: a self-exploration

• Interpreting spirit messages

What interests you about communicating with spirits? What do you want to learn? Whom do you want to contact? The reasons people pick up a book like this one are as different as the people themselves. But you all have one thing in common: You are seeking answers.

Although mostly it’s those of us in the physical world who wish to contact the spirits of loved ones who have passed on, sometimes it’s a spirit on the other side that initiates communication. What could a spirit possibly need from us on this side of life? You might be surprised!

Inquiring Minds Just Want to Know!

Let’s face it: You’re curious. You want to know that there is something beyond this physical life. And you wouldn’t mind knowing a bit about what that something might be like. This desire to prove the continuity of life is normal and it is among the most basic of human curiosities. In fact, it is one of the most significant factors that make us human beings. We think, therefore we anticipate and we question.

Phenomena come in many forms—voices, visions, sensations. Being able to validate or authenticate these messages is what establishes them as intentional. This happens when all of the bits and pieces of information that you gather build images that are familiar to you. Sometimes the images aren’t what you expect, or even recognizable until you do a little digging.

The very first spirit message that Rita received in a reading was from a great-aunt she didn’t know she had. After the reading Rita called her mother, who was able not only to verify the spirit’s message but also to tell Rita about this great-aunt who had passed to the other side quite a few years before. The experience was compelling enough to demonstrate the continuity of life and it also convinced Rita to investigate communication with spirits.

Spirit contact is not random. This is not a party game (more on the hazards of treating it as such in Chapter 11). The spirits who come through have some connection to you. You might not be aware of the connection at first; they could be spirits who passed over long ago, people you don’t remember or didn’t even know about. You might need to go away from a reading and do some research, as Rita did after “meeting” a great-aunt she didn’t know existed until her mother was able to confirm the information.

Premonition

Don’t let your curiosity suppress your normal good judgment. Unfortunately, wherever there is need there is someone waiting to take advantage of it. Spirit contact is certainly no exception. Let the details speak for themselves. Take what you experience with a great grain of salt; information that comes through a medium can be colored by the medium’s perceptions, which aren’t always accurate. Also, someone who wasn’t especially insightful in physical life doesn’t become all-knowing in the spirit world. If the experience doesn’t feel right to you, don’t feel compelled to continue or to stay.

But somehow the spirits who come through are important to you. They are willing to establish contact and they have something to say to you. Make a mental appointment to meet with the spirit, ask your guides and loved ones to be with you before meeting with the medium, and be open to what comes through.

A Time for Healing

Every spirit communication should be a healing experience, and should always be looked at in that way. You might not know, when you first embark on a spirit contact experience, what healing you need. You might need closure, or help getting through a difficult time. Much of the hurt people carry around is buried so deep within that they are no longer consciously aware of it. Communication with a spirit who knows exactly what the wound is and what caused it can bring that hurt to the surface, at which point the healing process can begin.

If it seems that we keep stressing the point about healing, you’re right. Spirit contact always comes in healing and light, which is so important that we can’t stress it enough. Even when the messages you receive aren’t what you expected or what you want to get, they should be positive and helpful. If you have any sense that the situation is dark or negative, end it immediately. This is not spirit contact. It might be manipulation (from this side, not the other side!), it might be your fears, or it might be a matter for which you should seek psychological counseling. But it is not the spirit if it’s not happening with goodness and light.

Mission: Unknown

Your life—your existence in this physical world—has purpose. You, particularly and uniquely you, are here for a reason. Your soul has a mission to complete during its time here. One of the most exciting and at the same time most frustrating, aspects of this is the mystery of it all. You don’t know what your soul’s mission is; you don’t know the grander scheme of why you are living your life. You just have to make the choices that you hope and believe take you in the right direction. Each soul’s lessons are unique. The path of your life, the journey of your soul, matters to, as well as beyond your individual existence.

The freedom and the opportunity this mystery offers means that you are not compelled to follow any particular path. Your life is not predetermined; your destiny is not a stationary target but is instead a dynamic and ever-changing journey. You make the choices and decisions that become your life’s—and your soul’s—path. With this freedom comes accountability, of course. You, and you alone, are responsible for the choices you make and the outcomes that are the consequences of your decisions.

This is the “growth” element of your spirit’s journey through physical life. As we all know, growth is not easy. It often involves starts and stops, and sometimes even back-sliding to repeat the lessons we didn’t quite get the first time around. It might seem that your decisions always end up leading you in directions you don’t want to follow, but find yourself headed. Rather than making choices, you are following patterns. And rather than spiraling upward, so to speak, to higher levels of understanding and insight, you end up running in circles!

Silver Cord

Many people believe that their fates are absolutely predetermined. An in-depth study of religions, however, will show that free choice is always given to us. We make our own decisions about how we live. Spiritualism preaches personal responsibility, that each of us is responsible for our own decisions in life and that we create our happiness and our inner peace by living according to natural law.

Many of us want to know more about why we are here, what lessons we need to learn during our physical lives, and how we can leave the earth plane a better place, however slightly, than it was when we arrived. With knowledge comes increased ability to make appropriate, and directed, choices and decisions.

And wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a little help and guidance, to bump you off the familiar but doomed track and onto the path to the life you want to live, the life you feel could or should be yours, the life that will make a difference? Well, you can. Although your life is yours and yours alone to shape and direct, there’s no “rule” that you have to go it alone. Those who have passed this way before you and moved on are more than willing to reach out a helping hand … figuratively speaking.

Your Personal Reasons: A Self-Exploration

Why do you seek spirit contact? The more clearly you can establish your intent for seeking contact, the more likely it is you’ll obtain specific, and useful, information. This is not to say that you’ll then get the answers you want. But you will receive the answers you need. The following questions can help you clarify what contact you are seeking and what you hope to find out. This is not a test; there are no right or wrong answers. This is just a process to get you thinking about how communication with spirits can help you.

1. Are you presently grieving the loss of a loved one? If so, whom, and what were the circumstances of his or her passing?

2. What unresolved issues have been left hanging in your life by the passing of a loved one?

3. Are there particular people you want to contact? What are your reasons?

4. What changes would you like to see happen in your life as a result of spirit communication?

5. Do you have a message to convey to a loved one who has passed on? If so, what is it?

6. If you had a particular moment or experience to relive with a loved one who has passed, what would it be?

7. What expectations do you have about working with a medium?

8. Who might come through that would be a surprise for you?

9. What fears or apprehensions do you have about spirit contact?

10. What do you most want to know, or to have happen, through a spirit contact?

If other questions occur to you, jot them down as well. The idea is to help prepare yourself. It is sometimes helpful to compile a brief family history before having a medium do a spirit reading. This gives you a broader sense of who might come through. And remember that spirit contact is not limited to relatives. Friends or friends of the family who have passed to the other side also have connections with you, and are just as likely to come through for you depending on the messages they are bringing.

Identifying Spirit Contact

How do you locate a loved one in a crowd? Do you look for someone who is six-foot-two, has brown hair and hazel eyes, and wears a New York Yankees cap? It’s a good place to start. Do you listen for that laugh that quickens your pulse, try to smell the essence of a familiar fragrance, watch for certain movements and gestures? Details help!

We tend to identify people who are important to us by the characteristics that matter to us. This is how we establish a sense of familiarity and recognition. Physical traits alone, although they are helpful in making preliminary assessments, are often too general to make conclusive identification. While you might think of those gorgeous hazel eyes when you think of your loved one, it is your loved one’s unique personality traits that make the case.

Recognizing a spirit’s identity is a similar process, of connecting to familiar personality traits. After all, you don’t get a set of wings and a gold harp when you pass over, and then instantly become something you never were in physical life! The personality that was the essence of your identity as a physical being survives to remain the essence of your identity as a spirit being. Just as in our physical world, it is the minutiae of the person that let you know it is that person.

Mediums and Messages

When Rita was doing spirit contact during a church service, a young man came through for a woman in the congregation. Rita gave his physical description, and then said, “and he’s extremely strong in personality.” Rita stood up and demonstrated the young man’s walk, and shared some of the colorful language he was using. The woman for whom this spirit was coming through laughed; these details let her know exactly who it was!

Physical characteristics, although helpful, are sometimes too vague or general, depending on the depth of the description, to provide conclusive identification. A spirit can come through at any age, even older than at passing. This is particularly true for those who pass from their physical lives as children or young adults whose bodies haven’t yet reached their physical prime. Generally, there are some features that make the spirit identifiable, but they might not be what you expect.

The character traits that come through during a spirit contact make it possible for you to establish a spirit’s identity. These traits comprise the evidence that proves the continuity of life, because they are the bits and pieces of life. Sometimes the confirmation of identity happens almost immediately; there is something the spirit does or says that lets you know without a doubt that this is your Aunt Margaret or your great-grandfather. Sometimes the clues are subtle, and the spirit’s identity remains uncertain until you have time to think about the messages.

It’s important to separate spirit communicating from what could be psychic. Sometimes what you don’t know turns out to be more evidential than what you do know. This happens when relatives you didn’t know you had come through, or you receive information about them that you didn’t know. And sometimes it takes some digging to uncover their stories.

When Rita was doing spirit contact during a church service, a man came through who kept showing an amazing array of Italian pastries. Sitting in the congregation was his daughter, who recognized him but was puzzled by the Italian pastries. Her father, she said, had been a baker by profession but he baked only bread. The woman went home and talked with her uncle, her father’s brother. Her uncle said that although his brother had established his career baking bread, he had originally trained as a pastry chef. This is how doing your research, exploring the information you receive, gives you the full message.

The Communication Challenge

Communication certainly ranks right at the top of the list when it comes to human challenges. Even among those of us on the earth plane, communication problems have made “I’m sorry” our most common words! Even when we can see each other, make eye contact, and observe body language, we can misunderstand one another. We confuse meanings and intent, say things we don’t mean, and misinterpret the words of others. Add differences in language and culture to the mix, and a translator becomes necessary.

Imagine the challenges, then, of communicating across the planes of spirit existence! The most amazing aspect of the Fox sisters’ contact with the spirit of Charles Rosna in their Hydesville home was not the contact itself but that they worked out a code through which they were able to exchange information (see Chapter 3).

Just as existence on the spirit plane transcends the physical body, so does communication transcend speech. Spirit beings don’t require language as we know it to communicate with each other. So in contact with us, it is sometimes difficult to find ways to communicate their messages … particularly when those messages are about learning that has happened for them on the other side.

Spiritology

A psychical vocabulary of symbolism is the “dictionary” of symbols and representations that a medium acquires to make communication with spirits possible.

What Does That Mean?

A medium’s consciousness interprets the messages that come through, translating them into concepts and words that those of us on the earth plane can understand. A spirit must work within the capabilities of the medium’s interpretations. Most mediums acquire a psychical vocabulary of symbolism that allows them to have consistent communication with spirit entities. It’s another language of sorts, related to the medium’s level of development, and becomes the standard that spirits use in working with the medium.

Colors, feelings, numbers, and an array of sensory experiences (representations of sight, hearing, taste, touch) often become part of a medium’s psychical vocabulary of symbolism. A medium might typically see the color blue, for example, when a spirit is attempting to communicate about an event that caused sadness. The logic of the connection might not be apparent to the medium; what matters is that the medium knows the connection and uses it to clarify and express the spirit’s message.

We’ll come back to this in greater detail in Chapters 9 and 10.

Premonition

If you hear voices that are dark or negative, or that are telling you to do things you know are wrong, these are not the voices of spirits. Spirits always come through in goodness. They will not come through to approach you in a negative way. If the voices that are coming through are negative, you need to seek guidance from a medium or a mental health professional.

Janice came to Rita for a spirit drawing. As Rita began to draw the spirit image that presented, she felt an overwhelming desire to draw the knot of her hair on the top of her head, rather than on back of the head or at the nape of the neck as was the style of the time. Rita tried several times to move the knot to a more conventional placement, but kept redrawing it on the top. Janice recognized the woman as her beloved great-grandmother. She came back a week later to show Rita two photos, each showing the knot centered on the top of her great-grandmother’s head just as Rita had been guided to draw it.

Like a Good Book …

In fact, this is why we call spirit communication a “reading.” The medium “reads” all of the fragments of information—all of the signs—and organizes them into a presentation that makes sense to the person desiring contact. As with books, there are varying degrees of complexity in such a presentation. Sometimes it’s simple and straightforward, with the key points clear and unmistakable. Other times, the medium must work with the spirit and with you to get the translation right. And sometimes you need to take the information and go away with it, to think about it and try to understand its multiple layers and meanings.

When a Spirit Reaches Out to You

Many times spirits initiate contact to be helpful, to make amends, to say, “I love you and I’m still with you,” or even, “I’ll be waiting for you, to reach out to you when it’s your time to cross.” Remember, the essence of an individual’s personality as it was here on the earth plane extends into the spirit’s existence on the higher side. Someone who was compassionate and helpful in the physical world will still want to reach out to help others. And those who were maybe not quite so understanding and interested in others often become so as they move forward on their spiritual journeys.

As one illustration of the soul’s evolution and progression after passing, Rita shares an experience from her own life. Rita and her father had a difficult relationship. The medium who first brought him through said, “He’s saying he’s sorry because someone told him he had to.” Rita made a joke about there being a 12-step program on the other side, and the medium said that, in fact, for many spirits it was something quite like that. A year later, a different medium brought him through and that medium said, “He’s saying he wants to say he’s sorry but he says that you wouldn’t recognize him as saying that.”

Can I Help You?

Spirits don’t suddenly know everything, see everything, and hear everything. Passing to the other side doesn’t make a spirit omniscient or all-knowing! Although many spirits do acquire heightened insight, understanding, and knowledge, this results from the growth and evolving that take place as the spirit continues its mission.

The spirit that has learned a lesson sometimes wants to share the learning with others who are struggling with the same issues. Perhaps the situation doesn’t need to be as difficult as you are making it, or you are overlooking an important piece of information. Maybe the answer is right there in front of you, but you just can’t see it. Just as family and friends on the earth plane might try to help you with such matters, those who have passed to the spirit plane might want to reach back and offer a helping hand. Accept, use, and enjoy this help! It comes to you in goodness and healing.

Making Amends

One of the most common reasons spirits seek contact with their loved ones on the earth plane is to make amends for mistakes they made in their physical lives. This can be as healing for the spirit as for the person on the earth plane. Mary, a woman at the start of her middle years, came to Rita desperately wanting to contact the spirit of her stepfather who had raised her. The stepfather had been a tall, slender man during the prime of his life, but in old age had developed Alzheimer’s disease that ultimately resulted in his death.

What came through to Rita, however, was the image of a husky, short man who had died of a heart attack. Rita drew the image that came through, and when Mary saw the drawing she gasped in disbelief: The spirit visitor was Mary’s natural father who had abandoned the family when Mary was a child! Mary had spent most of her life hating this man for what he did to her family, and now here he was, reappearing from beyond the physical world. To do what? More damage?

Silver Cord

Sometimes a spirit comes through with a message that is important for the spirit to give to you, often a recognition of how actions on the earth plane might have affected you and your life. The circumstances could even be ones you didn’t know about before receiving the message. Healing goes both ways!

As Rita continued the reading, it became clear that Mary’s father had come through to say he was sorry for having deserted the family so many years before his death. There were circumstances Mary didn’t know about, but the bottom line was that her father made decisions that hurt his family, and he wanted Mary to know he understood how hard her life had been as a result. Although this was not the contact Mary wanted, it provided the answers to many questions she had and ended up being a tremendous healing experience for Mary, as well as for her father’s spirit.

When Crisis Strikes

It’s common for spirit contacts to come through in times of crisis, either personal or large-scale. People who become critically ill and spend days or weeks in the hospital hovering between life and death often report, when they recover, that loved ones who had passed were with them the whole time. These contacts are comforting, letting you know that no matter what the situation, you are not alone.

Easing the Pain of Grief

No matter how strongly you believe that you and your loved ones will reunite on the other side, there is grief when a loved one passes before you do. The emptiness that you feel can be overwhelming. Sometimes a spirit can reach back from the other side to offer comfort and solace, to say, “I’ll always be with you.” These contacts can come through a medium, or through direct experiences. A familiar fragrance that floats seemingly from nowhere. The sense of a laugh, distant and not quite audible, over something your loved one would have found hilarious. A dream in which your loved one appears. In reality, these contacts are probably much more commonplace than most of us recognize. Because they are often so subtle, and because grief is such an overwhelming emotion, we just don’t pick up on the gentle signals. But they are there, and they can be a source of great comfort.

When It’s Your Time to Make the Crossing

If there is only one message you get from this book, let it be this: You are not alone! When it is time for your spirit to cross from the earth plane to the spirit plane, there will be a gathering of spirits waiting to welcome you. This can be a great source of comfort for those who know passing is imminent, such as people who are terminally ill, as well as for family and friends who remain on the earth plane and are grieving.

Even Spirits Have Needs

The spirit plane is a busy and dynamic existence. Spirits are not just floating around. The soul’s mission continues, and the spirit often experiences significant understanding and insight as its mission continues to unfold. A loved one who has passed to the higher side might need help from you for this to happen, or might want to let you know that you are providing help even though you don’t know it. When you accept the amends a spirit offers from the higher side, it allows that spirit to move forward.

Keeping the Connection

You might experience a range of emotions and feelings as you begin thinking about spirit communication and all that it might mean in your life. The opportunities are nearly endless, and what you make of them can change your life in ways you can’t now imagine. Yes, there is often sadness, regret, hurt, or loneliness when a loved one passes. But the connections are still there; the existence continues. You don’t ever really lose someone you love.

The Least You Need to Know

• It is natural and normal to want to explore the continuity of life.

• The same personality characteristics that existed on the earth plane will remain in the spirit plane.

• Spirit contact always comes in goodness and healing.

• Spirit communication, like all communication, sometimes requires digging below the surface of the messages to determine their true meanings.

• Sometimes spirits make contact because we can help them as they evolve.

Part 2

What’s on the Other Side?

From Hollywood movies to religious writings, there are many expressions of the higher side and what it is like to be there. Is it heaven? Is it a void? Is it another dimension of existence?

Let’s take a look at what existence on the higher side might be like, and investigate some of the ways spirits communicate across the border to bring messages of love and healing.

Chapter 5

Spirit Geography: Planes of Existence

In This Chapter

• Hollywood’s vision of the hereafter

• Religion’s views

• Using energy to connect with spirit

• Akashic records: the story of your soul

• Ways to connect with your divine energy

• How spirits evolve

In this physical world, we define nearly everything in terms of time and space. We measure our opportunities and limitations in those terms. It takes 45 minutes to drive 20 miles to work. It takes 35 minutes for a cake to bake. Once a year, we celebrate the anniversaries of our births, which we count in years and which define life itself. When you are two years old, someone else takes care of your every need. If you are 16 years old, you can drive (to your birthday party to enjoy cake, if you like!). When you are 85 years old, you know you are reaching the end of your physical life. Time and space are our boundaries, and there is just so much of either.

The first time Rita’s father showed himself to Rita, he presented himself at the age of 27 with a full head of golden hair, a pier 49 T-shirt, and a muscular physique. When Rita first saw him, she questioned who he was. He had been 41 when she was born, and she never had seen him as a young man. Other times after that, he showed himself at age 50 or so, although he was almost 81 when he passed to the world of spirit.

On the other side, there is no time and space. There are different levels of existence but there is no sense of linear time or structured space as we know those limitations here in the physical world. Spirits do not age chronologically. When they come through in communication with us, they might appear at any age from before or after their physical lives ended. The spirit “embodies” its image of ideal, whatever that might be, which might change as the spirit evolves.

Lights, Camera, Action!

As humans, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to understand, define, and explain life beyond death. From the spooky to the sentimental, we’ve created views of the hereafter in books and movies. Here are just a few examples:

• Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s sixteenth-century play, is one of the earliest works in which the plot revolves entirely around interaction between a spirit and a person in the physical world. Hamlet, the young prince of Denmark, receives visits from the spirit of his recently murdered father, the king, who tells Hamlet that the murderer was none other than Claudius, the king’s brother who has since assumed the throne. To authenticate the spirit’s claims, Hamlet has his father’s murder re-enacted according to the spirit’s description of the events, and finds Claudius’s reactions convincing proof of guilt. Four hundred years after it was originally written, Shakespeare’s play still appears on stages across the world each year. In 1997, it was released as a movie featuring Kenneth Branagh in the starring role.

• Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989) combine surprising compassion with comedy and action as these films follow the adventures of a team of “scientists” who capture ghosts and release them to the higher existence they can’t seem to find on their own. The cast includes Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts.

• In the 1990 romantic thriller Ghost (Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg), a husband refuses to move on to the other side until he saves his wife from the unscrupulous “friends” who murdered him. The film won Goldberg a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Rita, the reluctant medium who connected Sam (Swayze) and Molly (Moore).

• While inattentively fiddling with the radio, Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) drives his sports car into the path of a bus in the 1991 movie Defending Your Life. He finds himself in Judgment City, where a panel reviews the key points of his life to determine where Daniel goes next.

• In the 1998 film What Dreams May Come, comic Robin Williams plays it straight as Chris Nielsen in an imaginative and ultimately touching story that explores the heavy concepts of tragedy, loss, suicide, heaven, purgatory, and hell.

• Young actor Haley Joel Osment captivated audiences in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense, with his character Cole’s somber assertion “I see dead people.” Among them was child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), not yet aware that he no longer inhabits the earth plane.

• In the 2002 thriller Dragonfly, Kevin Costner plays Dr. Joe Darrow, an emergency room physician who believes his wife, killed in a bus accident, is attempting to contact him through his critically ill patients (especially those who have near-death experiences).

Mediums and Messages

The dead people young Cole sees in The Sixth Sense are somewhat frightening, conveying a sense of desperation. One unequivocal assertion we can make is: Spirit contact is not like this! When you “see dead people” they will not be gruesome, scary, or in any other way unpleasant. If what you experience scares you, your fears are in control, not spirits. Even spirits in need don’t make contact or come through in ways that we might find frightening. If they did, why would we continue the contact?

These, of course, are but a very few of the movies that deal with the “Is there life after death?” question. Feel free to add your favorites to the list, which truly is so extensive that it could be the topic of a book itself! Indeed, it seems that Hollywood works overtime to bring us new and varied versions of life beyond physical death each year. How close to the truth are these presentations? Well, how close are Hollywood presentations of anything to their real counterparts? Entertainment, after all, is the mainstay of Hollywood. That’s what sells tickets and keeps people in their seats. When we watch movies, we want to get our money’s worth in terms of entertainment value.

Spirits come through as they want us to perceive them, and in ways that affirm their identities to prove the continuity of life. Spirit communication, we say again, is always about goodness and healing. When we seek genuine spirit communication, the drama of the connection is what keeps our attention—often for long after the experience of the connection draws to a close.

Heaven and Hell, Reward and Punishment

Many Western faith systems present a view of life, death, and what happens beyond death as a structure of good and bad, reward and punishment, heaven and hell. You live a good life here on the earth plane, and then, as a reward, your soul goes to heaven when your body dies. There is a process of judgment by an all-powerful God, with an immediate result. In some belief systems the decision is final, while in others there are ways the spirit can “earn” its way to a better place in the hierarchy of the hereafter, either through its own actions (penitence) or through the prayers and penitence of those on the earth plane.

The soul’s destination after physical death—heaven, hell, or purgatory—is a place described by physical attributes. Heaven is generally portrayed as a location in the sky that exists above the physical earth, far beyond the ability of sight to perceive it. In many Christian faiths, heaven is the home of God and the ultimate destination for “good” souls. Hell, by contrast, is generally portrayed as deep within the earth’s core, a place of fire and eternal burning. It is the domain of the devil, the ultimate evil, and the ultimate destination for “bad” souls. The concept of judging a life to determine the soul’s destination and journey beyond physical death did not come into existence until the Middle Ages (800 C.E. or so).

Spiritology

Purgatory is a station of transition where the soul goes to await judgment following death of the physical body. Within the Roman Catholic belief system, a soul in purgatory may atone for the sins committed during its physical life to then qualify for eternal existence in heaven.

The role of such representations is often more to enforce codes of morality and behavior than to advance an understanding of the soul’s continuing existence. Rewards encourage one set of behaviors, while punishments discourage another. Strict reward and punishment structures leave little room for learning or changing. An action receives a judgment, for which there is then either a reward or a punishment. A more acceptable, and certainly more positive, approach for many people is one that requires accountability within the context of learning, growing, and evolving.

Eternal Existence with the Gods

The premise of heaven and hell predates Christianity and other modern faith systems, existing in the mythology of many ancient cultures whose faith systems embraced multiple gods, including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Celts, and Mayans. In these systems, heaven was the home of the gods from whom came the light and warmth that made life on earth possible. This heaven arched through the sky above the earth, with the movements of the sun the visual evidence of its existence. In Greek and Roman mythology, Hades ruled the underworld from his palace within the underworld and various other gods did so in other cultures (see Chapter 2).

Neither heaven nor the underworld in these ancient cultures were exclusively good or bad; in fact, the gods and goddesses who inhabited them had both good and bad characteristics. And everyone who died went to the underworld, because this was where the dead “lived” after death. They didn’t endure eternal suffering; to the contrary, theirs was an existence free from the pains and problems of physical life. There was no judgment to determine who ended up where; it seems that “life” pretty much went on as before death, but without the physical trappings.

Transcendence, Nirvana, and Beyond

The faith systems of the world are varied and diverse, and each has its own perspectives on life, death, and beyond. Here’s what some of them are:

• Olam Ha-Ba, the “World to Come,” the belief in afterlife, as in some Jewish sects

• Reincarnation, the belief that the soul returns to another physical life, integral to faiths such as Hindu

• Resurrection, the belief that the soul returns to its physical body in a whole and pure state

• Nirvana, the belief in transcendence of the self, as in Buddhism

It’s All About Energy

It is through energy that spirits are able to communicate across the boundary between the earth and spirit planes. Understanding different approaches to energy systems gives us insights into how spirit communication takes place.

Energy both separates and links the physical and spirit worlds. It is the essence of all existence, although it takes many different forms. You are energy, the chair in which you are sitting is energy, the book you are holding is energy. The principles of science—physics, specifically—substantiate this. All objects, tangible and intangible, visible and invisible, audible and inaudible, are matter. And all matter is comprised of energy structures—atoms, molecules, electrons—that vibrate at certain frequencies. The rate, or speed, of the frequency determines the matter’s tangibility.

The energy of matter that forms an object we consider solid, such as a chair or a book, vibrates so slowly that we are able to physically perceive its matter. The energy of matter we cannot see, such as the air we breathe, vibrates very fast. Your physical body vibrates slowly enough to have tangibility, while your spirit vibrates so fast that you cannot perceive its presence through your five physical senses. And energy on the spirit plane vibrates so fast that it doesn’t have an appearance or presence at all, as we might define that, unless a spirit chooses to represent itself in a tangible form.

Silver Cord

Few people think of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) as a mystic. But it was this famous physicist who, in his watershed work in physics, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (first published in 1918), described, defined, and quantified all existence as energy that vibrates at different frequencies. Low-frequency vibrations produce tangible or visible representations such as the objects of our everyday lives, Einstein said, and high-frequency vibrations produce energy we can’t quantify with our physical senses. It was a very New Age concept from a scientist who lived three quarters of a century ago!

The energy of the physical body is not capable of vibrating at a high enough rate to exist solely on the spirit plane. So when there is a spirit contact, the spirit comes through to the earth plane. To make its presence known, the spirit must slow its vibration as the medium raises his or her vibration so they can meet and communicate.

Your Body’s Energy Centers: Chakras

As a structure comprised of energy, your body has energy centers called chakras. Life energy, called prana, flows through them. Your aura is a final, outer layer of energy that surrounds the body. There are seven chakras, which roughly align with your body’s physical nervous system:

• The first chakra, often called the root chakra, resides at the base of your spine. Its energy is the energy of survival, which relates to your security and well-being. Your root chakra connects you to your physical life. The color associated with this chakra is red.

• The second, or sacral, chakra resides in your lower pelvis, and is the energy of sex uality, relationships, creativity, and emotions. The color associated with this chakra is orange.

Spiritology

A chakra is a center of energy within your body. The word means “wheel” in ancient Sanskrit. Prana is a Sanskrit word meaning “life energy.” Your aura is an outer layer of energy that contains your body’s prana and keeps it circulating through your chakras.

• The third, or solar plexus, chakra resides in your solar plexus or “gut”—the center of your abdomen just above your navel. Its energy relates to personal power and self-esteem. The color associated with this chakra is yellow.

• The fourth, or heart, chakra resides at the level of your heart and is the energy of emotional love, affection, and partnership. The color associated with this chakra is green.

• The fifth chakra resides at the base of your throat and is the energy of expression and truth. The color associated with this chakra is blue.

• The sixth chakra, often called your “third eye,” resides in the center of your forehead. Its energy is the energy of inner vision and psychic perception. The color associated with this chakra is indigo.

• The seventh, or crown, chakra resides at the crown of your head. It is the energy portal that connects you to the divine and the collective spirit that exists beyond your individual being. The color associated with this chakra is violet.

The prana that flows through your chakras connects your physical body with your spirit. Increasing the flow of prana to a particular chakra activates and enhances it. Yoga and meditation are two ways to awaken your chakras (more about these practices later in this chapter).

In yoga, the seven chakras are the centers of energy that flow through the body.

The Human Energy Field: Your Subtle Body

Your physical body is more than a container that carries you through your life. In fact, your existence is a composite of seven layers of energy known as the human energy field. These layers are called subtle bodies. They are simultaneously independent and interrelated, and correlate to your chakras:

• Your etheric subtle body is like an energy shadow of your physical body. It is the energy element that connects you to physical life, and it correlates to your first, or root, chakra.

Spiritology

The human energy field is the composite structure that contains your physical existence. The subtle bodies are the seven layers of the human energy field.

• Your emotional subtle body is the energy of your feelings and emotions. It correlates to your second and third chakras.

• Your astral subtle body functions as a conduit between the physical energies and the spiritual energies of your existence. It correlates to your fourth, or heart, chakra.

• Your mental or intellectual subtle body is the energy of your thoughts and intellect. It correlates to your fifth and sixth chakras.

• Your causal subtle body is your connection to the divine. It correlates to your seventh, or crown, chakra. It is the most highly developed of your energy structures, and through it you are connected to a greater cosmic or spiritual existence.

Remember our discussion of energy vibration earlier in this chapter? The varying vibrational levels of these different energy layers, or subtle bodies, allows them to co-exist with what you perceive to be your physical existence. They just vibrate at higher rates, so you are mostly unaware of them.

Energy flows between the human energy field that is beyond your individual existence and the chakras that are your personal existence. In this way, you are separate from yet integrated with the overall energy of all existence. It’s as though your body “plugs in.” Even though you reside on the earth plane because your existence is physical, you remain connected to the spirit plane because, after all, the essence of your existence is the energy that is your spirit.

Your Soul’s Story: Your Akashic Record

An Akashic record is a cosmic collection of all that ever was, is, and will be, as documentation, so to speak, of the soul’s existence, mission, and journey. It’s not an actual document or book or even record as we might think of these, but rather exists in the realm of spirit as a divine record. The content of the Akashic record is said to be deeply symbolic. It is possible to connect with your Akashic record through meditation or through a good psychic counselor.

Psychic counselors who do past-life regressions believe this is made possible by accessing your Akashic record (see Chapters 21 and 22). And some people believe that your spirit guides draw from your Akashic record as they provide you with guidance and assistance (see Chapter 7).

There are references or parallels to the concept of Akashic records in many faith systems, including the following:

• The Bible’s Book of Revelation (the Book of Life) and recording angels, who document the soul’s thoughts and deeds for God to review on Judgment Day

Spiritology

An Akashic record is the collection of all of your soul’s actions and travels, past, present, and future. The term comes from the ancient Sanskrit word Akasha, which means “primary or primordial substance.”

• Buddhism’s Akasha or Akasa, the life essence that is present as a space around the physical and spirit worlds and that contains all existence

• Psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s collective unconscious, the premise that all people share certain symbolisms, thoughts, and beliefs through a connected unconsciousness (see Chapter 22)

• The cosmic consciousness or collective mind of metaphysics, which holds that all spirits, on the earth plane and on the spirit plane, are united on a deep level of consciousness

Connecting with Your Divine Energy

There are a number of ways that you can connect with your divine energy. Among the most common are prayer, meditation, and yoga. All combine the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions of existence. (And there are Complete Idiot’s Guides for all three: prayer, meditation, and yoga! See Appendix B for details.)

Prayer

Through prayer, we communicate directly with the divine, however it is that we perceive it. This can be as God, as god or goddess, as the Universe, or the collective spirit. Although it is a communication between an individual and his or her divine, prayer can take place in groups. The collective power can be amazing, particularly when directed toward healing or releasing a spirit to continue on its journey.

Rita was once called to a house where a spirit, whose physical life had been ended by murder, was unable to complete its transition from the earth plane to the spirit plane. The house was filled with great sadness, and its new owners often saw moving objects and heard noises. They realized that this was an opportunity, and wanted to help the spirit. Rita gathered a small group at the house to pray for and with the spirit, encouraging the spirit to accept the welcoming contact from friends and family already on the other side and asking for divine assistance with the transition. Finally the connection was made, and the spirit moved on. All who were praying could feel the sadness suddenly lift.

Prayer connects you with the divine by activating your causal body and the energy of your seventh, or crown, chakra.

Meditation

Meditation connects you with the divine by activating your mental subtle body and your sixth, or “third eye,” chakra. A common meditative practice is to focus on a single thought until all other thoughts leave your mind. You then explore this single thought in total completeness. Through this process, you can gain relaxation and clarity.

Silver Cord

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was a physician, minister, and naturalist who studied the survival of plant and animal species in their natural habitats. Darwin observed that natural selection meant the strongest and most adaptive representatives of a species were the ones that survived and reproduced. He published his findings in 1859, in what would become his defining work and most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Yoga

Yoga postures, or asanas, activate various chakras, which in turn access their correlating subtle bodies. Yoga combines activities of the physical body with meditation, providing a range of connections that can be quite basic, as with breathing exercises, or complex, as with postures that access the causal subtle body.

Spirit Evolution

Even though they don’t age as we think of aging, spirits evolve as they acquire wisdom and insight. Here on the earth plane, we tend to think of evolution as a scientific process defining the changes that a species of animal or plant experiences over the course of its known existence. This is the means by which the species adapts to changes in its environment, and in a Darwinian view—which refers to the theories of evolution put forth by naturalist Charles Darwin—the means by which the species extends its life. In theory, a species can perpetuate its existence for as long as it is capable of changes that remain compatible with its environment.

When a species exceeds its capacity to adapt, it dies out—one by one—until finally there are no members of the species left. Prehistoric creatures, such as the dinosaur and the wooly mammoth, are now extinct; they were unable, as a species, to adapt to the changes in their environments. Scientists theorize that every species will ultimately reach the limits of its abilities to adapt, or evolve, and will become extinct. But even in the finality of one ending is the beginning of a different existence. New species arrive, with new capabilities for change and adaptation, and the cycle of life continues.

Remember, though, that time and space define the cycle of life here on the earth plane. These borders contain and define the spirit’s physical existence here, as they do all living things. But on the spirit plane, there are no such boundaries. Evolution is endless. A less common definition of evolution seems more applicable to the concept as it applies to spiritual growth: “unfolding; the action or instance of forming and giving something off; emission” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993).

The instant the physical body’s death releases the spirit, the spirit’s experience of its existence changes. (Think of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.) The higher side consists of many different levels of evolution, although these are not hierarchical or judgmental. The spirit, of course, evolves during its physical existence on the earth plane, too. Your physical life is a dimension of your soul’s mission, and is a necessary (and, we hope, a most pleasant) journey.

The Least You Need to Know

• The representations of Hollywood offer a sensationalized—and inaccurate—view of life beyond the physical world, often playing on our fears.

• Most religions and belief systems incorporate some sense of the soul’s existence beyond the physical body’s death.

• Energy is the common force that connects the earth plane with the spirit plane, and it is through energy that connection between the two planes can take place.

• Your soul has a mission that extends through and beyond your physical life.

• Prayer, meditation, and yoga are some of the ways in which you can connect with the divine.

• There are no boundaries of time and space on the spirit plane, so a spirit’s evolution is endless.

Chapter 6

Birth, Death, and Passing Over

In This Chapter

• Theories and beliefs about the spirit’s beginnings

• Helping spirits pass over

• Are we disturbing those on the other side?

• A different, but continuing, relationship

Physical life has two defining transitions: birth and death. When giving birth a woman and her partner usher a new life into this world. This is a wondrous event, a glorious time. Even complete strangers smile and offer congratulations at the news of a baby’s arrival. But what does the spirit experience as it transitions from the spirit plane to the earth plane and to the confines of a physical body? Does the spirit welcome the journey as much as we welcome its arrival?

And what about the transition on the other end of life? We know from communicating with those who have passed over that there are varying experiences of the transition, although crossings seem to share several common characteristics. Is this a solitary journey? Or do the spirits of those gathered around us on the earth plane somehow send us off to a welcoming contingent waiting on the other side? Spirit communications and near-death experiences suggest that the spirit is never alone, even in its transitions between one world of existence to another.

The Spirit Before Birth

We all think and talk about what might happen after death parts us from our physical bodies. As soon as we become aware of our mortality, we begin to worry about its inevitable conclusion. But what about before our entry into this physical world? Where, and what, are we? When it comes to the soul’s beginnings, we have far more questions than answers!

The Soul’s Beginnings: A Theological Perspective

Through the ages, theologians and religious scholars have debated the matter of the soul’s beginnings, putting forth various theories. Some of these theories are decidedly Christian, while others either predate Christianity or appear in numerous faith systems, Christian and non-Christian. These are, of course, very complex concepts. We’ll just briefly touch on a few of them to give a sense of their diversity and variation.

The prevailing, or at least most widely held, view of the soul’s origin dodges the question of origin altogether by simply saying that the soul has always existed. This view shows up in various Western and Eastern faith systems, including certain Christian sects, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. It also exists in secular, or nonreligious, views, such as the discourses of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Spiritology

Theology is the study of God and God’s relationship with humankind within the context of a structured religion or faith system. A theologian is someone who studies theology.

Many Christian faiths, including Catholicism, hold the view that God creates a new soul each time a child is conceived. If for some reason that child is not born into a physical life, its soul goes directly to a spirit existence—in this context, to live in heaven. Other faith systems believe that just as a child’s parents create a new physical body from the joining of their bodies, so, too, do their united spirits contribute equal parts to creating the new spirit that will inhabit that physical body.

And still other faith systems blend various theories and beliefs to come up with approaches that take a little of this and a little of that.

The Soul’s Beginnings: A Metaphysical Perspective

Within the framework of the metaphysical arts such as numerology (the study of energy as expressed through numbers) and astrology (the study of energy as expressed through the movements and relationships of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies), the soul chooses the moment and circumstances of its birth. This choice helps to define the soul’s mission in its physical life, and defines the energies of the Universe that will support the soul as it moves toward achieving its mission. This framework is not one of destiny, but rather of the choices of free will that lead the soul either toward or away from its mission. The soul travels toward its mission for as long as that takes and regardless of whatever detours it encounters along the way. There is no predetermined path; the path unfolds according to the decisions and choices a person makes.

Charting the Soul’s Course

Astrology is a blueprint of your personal energy. It fits within the context of the Universe’s energy as a whole, much as the blueprint for a house fits within a neighborhood or community. At your birth, your astrological chart shows just the basic structure of your life and the energies within the Universe that will support your spirit’s journey through its physical life. You retain the free will to make decisions contrary to the flow of this supportive energy. Such choices often result in a life filled with challenges and disappointments.

Rather than pinpointing your soul’s origin, astrology shows your spirit’s travels. This is, of course, far beyond the traditional sun-sign astrology most people know from the daily horoscope! This level of astrology is quite complex. Although in theory astrology shows the future as well as past journeys of your spirit, in practice it is virtually impossible to interpret the information with complete accuracy. Doing so relies on a level of understanding that appears unlikely on the earth plane (although there are some extraordinary astrologers out there who are able to make amazingly accurate interpretations).

Always remember the importance and role of free will. Every choice you make affects the course of your physical life on the earth plane and your spirit’s journey through its existence. Even if you could look ahead, what you would see would be a future dependent on precisely the state of your existence at this very moment—which, just in the process of looking ahead, would change!

The Universe Has Your Number

Numerology assigns numeric values to all aspects of your existence. You already know some of these—your date and time of birth, your age, the current date. Other dimensions of your life have numeric values as well, such as the names of people and places. Every number has a particular symbolic representation. Certain numbers are master numbers; that is, they are more powerful than other numbers.

Silver Cord

Want to know more about astrology or numerology? The Complete Idiot’s Guide series has you covered! Pick up The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Astrology, by Madeline Gerwick-Brodeur and Lisa Lenard (Alpha Books, 1997) and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Numerology, by Kay Lagerquist and Lisa Lenard (Alpha Books, 1999).

The Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century B.C.E., established a correlation between mathematics and energy. He determined that certain numbers reflect a higher vibration of energy than others, leading to their interpretation as master numbers.

In numerology, the numbers associated with your physical life represent various characteristics of your spirit, from its mission to its challenges. Understanding your personal numerology can give you additional insights into your spirit’s journey.

The Soul’s Beginnings: A Spiritualist Perspective

Spiritualism teaches that the origin of the Universe and all that exists within it is unknown, and really doesn’t matter! What does matter is that we do exist, and that our spirits continue across the spectrum of physical life and the spirit world. The focus in Spiritualism is on advancing the spirit’s mission as the spirit travels through the physical world.

Passing Assistance

At birth, we know there is a considerable contingent waiting on this side to welcome the new life. Doctors, nurses, partners, siblings, grandparents, and friends all gather to participate in the birth, in some way or another. What we can’t see is the contingent gathered on the other side, assisting the spirit in its transition into the physical world—although we must presume it is there. It is said, in spirit contacts, that those in the spirit world cry when a baby is born to the earth plane, just as we cry when a person leaves his or her physical existence to enter the realm of spirit.

The situation repeats itself at physical life’s other transition, death. Loved ones, and often health care professionals, gather around the dying person to offer whatever comfort is possible. And although you cannot see them, the welcoming contingent has gathered on the other side, waiting to greet the spirit in its return.

What’s different, typically, is the mood and tone of these two events. A baby’s birth inspires a great sense of joy and wonder. A person’s impending death often fills us with sadness, loss, and even despair. This is of course normal. We mourn the loss of those we love, even when we know they aren’t really lost to us but are just moving into a different existence. Our point of focus is on the “different,” and we know we will miss what we had. Knowing that there is life beyond the death of the physical body helps relieve some of the hurt. You know the life of the spirit continues, and this knowledge brings comfort and peace.

Silver Cord

Today we think of a wake as an often rowdy celebration of the life of a person who has just passed on. But originally the term identified the tradition of having someone sit awake all night beside the body of the one believed to have died, to make sure the person didn’t in fact “wake up.” Before modern technology made it possible to determine unquestionably that the physical body’s functions had ceased, it was often difficult to know whether the person was in fact dead or had slipped into a coma.

If you are with a loved one who is dying, let the person know you are there even if he or she appears to be unaware of what’s happening. Touch, talk, cry, laugh, pray—do whatever comes naturally. The mind and body might be shutting down, but the spirit is expanding. As it often happens in spirit contact, the spirit wants loved ones to know that those final words and caresses were both noticed and helpful. And as your loved one’s spirit achieves release, open yourself to feeling its joy and liberation.

Although you will feel loss and grief when you realize the passing has taken place, you will also have the comfort of knowing that you shared in the passage and that your loved one made the transition. This is one of the most intimate sharings you can have with someone. As a medium, Rita has been with those who are about to pass and has seen the gathering of those, the family members and friends on the higher side, reaching to welcome the one who is about to pass.

The experience is amazingly powerful, and is often the resounding “Yes!” that you seek when asking the question (aloud or whispered in your mind), “Is there really life beyond death?”

Releasing Fear

Letting go is as important for the departing spirit as it is for those left on the earth plane. The transition from physical life to spirit existence is both natural and inevitable. We on the earth plane can assist a spirit to complete its transition, through spirit contact and prayer. This can provide the comfort and the encouragement the spirit needs to release its bonds with the earth plane and allow those in the spirit plane to welcome their loved one.

Releasing Love

Love is our most powerful emotion. It can enable us to do things that should be beyond our abilities, such as when a woman lifts a car to free a loved one trapped beneath in an accident. Love, we say poetically, transcends all. Because of this, we long for love; it is what makes our human existence meaningful. And when love enters our lives, we don’t want to let it go.

Sometimes, the power of love can be strong enough that a loved one’s spirit is unwilling to pass over after death releases it from its physical body. The spirit might want to stay as close to the earth plane as possible to remain near the loved one who is still there. Or the spirit might feel unable to move away because the pull of love from the one remaining on the earth plane is too strong to let it go.

There are ways for those in the physical world to help the spirit’s transition between the earth plane and the spirit plane. For example, spirit contact and prayer can help both the person remaining on the earth plane and the spirit that needs to pass over. Love is like an incredibly fluid and flexible band of energy. It will always flow between and around the spirits at either end, maintaining the connection between them.

Completing Unfinished Business

Sometimes a person’s passing happens before the spirit feels it has finished its business on the earth plane. This is especially the case if death is sudden, leaving behind tangible loose ends such as financial matters. Spirits might not become all-knowing once they pass over to the higher side, but they do know that loved ones who remain on the earth plane often need help with these loose ends. So the departing spirit stays close to the earth plane to try to communicate the message offering guidance and help from the higher side.

Sometimes the loved one on the earth plane can feel this presence. There might be a sense of being directed about what to do with certain bills, to look in the upper left-hand desk drawer for the check ledger, to contact the bank about joint accounts, to send letters to creditors. Sometimes another person comes in to handle the matter, and seems to know just what to do even without any previous experience. Once these tasks are accomplished, the spirit is satisfied and moves on.

Rita was doing some message work during a church service and came to a woman whose significant other, the man with whom she shared her home, possessions, and life, had passed. After providing a full description of himself that the woman joyously recognized, the man said he wanted to talk to her about some papers that needed to be signed. “Tell her,” he communicated to Rita, “to make her own decisions and not pay any attention to all the others who feel they have her best interests at heart, because only she knows the right thing to do.”

Spiritology

Message work is what those in the Spiritualist Church sometimes call the portion of the church service that presents spirit communication.

The woman nodded and said nothing, and Rita concluded the service. Afterward, the woman came up to Rita and asked if they could talk for a moment. It had taken some time for the woman to absorb the communication and all that it implied, she said, but she wanted Rita to know how important and timely the message was. “I’m selling some property that we had owned together,” she said. “Everybody has advice, but this is what I want to do. I’m signing the papers next week!”

Unfinished business is not always task-oriented, of course. Because the timing of death is more likely to be unexpected than anticipated, there are often dangling issues that get cut off before resolution. A father and a daughter might never quite acknowledge to each other that they respect and admire the other’s achievements. Spouses or partners might not have the opportunity to apologize and make up after an argument. Siblings might not reach the point of maturity in their physical lives where they can move beyond the rivalries of youth.

Loved ones remaining on the earth plane, as well as the spirits who have passed, need to bring these matters to resolution. Sometimes the experience of this happens through a dream or visitation immediately following the death. Other times it takes place months or years down the road, and might require intervention from someone else, such as a medium.

People sometimes worry that reaching a level of completion has taken too long, and that it has interfered with the spirit’s existence to the same extent it has disrupted theirs. Although here in the physical world a significant amount of time might have passed since the loved one’s death, remember that on the higher side there is no time or space. What feels like a long time to you is really no time at all for the loved one on the other side. All that matters is that the healing takes place, so both the incarnate and discarnate spirits can move on.

Reaching Across the Border

Spirits are busy on the other side. There are no spirit communications that suggest spirits are lolling around out in the ethereal heavens somewhere, plucking at stars and watching the Universe unfold before them. To the contrary, it appears that existence on the higher side is quite active, and even intense. The difficulty for us on the earth plane is trying to understand how this can be when the framework we use to measure it—time and space—does not exist.

So what do they do on the higher side of life? To be sure, There is much learning and developing as each soul embarks on the next segment of its journey. But all is not serious! In fact, part of the evolution for most spirits is having fun and enjoying things that perhaps they didn’t get to do on the earth plane.

Rita was doing a reading for a woman whose fiancé had passed. “I have someone here who is playing the trumpet,” Rita said. “In fact, he’s quite resoundingly playing ‘When the Saints Go Marching In!’”

Mediums and Messages￘

Spirit contact sometimes comes without being summoned. Rita was at a wake for a friend’s father who had passed, when the father’s spirit grabbed her by the psychic coattails and communicated that he wanted to convey a message to his daughter. Rita walked over to her friend, took her hand, and said, “Your father wants me to tell you he’s dancing with your mother again!”

The woman burst into tears of joy. Her fiancé, she told Rita, had always wanted to learn to play the trumpet but had never had the time or the resources. Clearly, once those factors didn’t matter, he was free to pursue this dream … and pursue it with vigor! Many, many spirits share with us the fun and wonderful experiences they are having.

It’s hard for us to imagine being busy when there are no time and space constraints, because these are the factors that define “busy” for us here on the earth plane. But spirits certainly have plenty to do on the higher side, and in fact are likely “busier” than we can comprehend!

Do (Not) Disturb

We’ve been saying that the spirit has a mission. Part of this mission unfolds during the spirit’s existence on the earth plane, and part of it on the spirit plane. When we attempt to make contact with the spirit of a loved one who has passed, are we interrupting anything?

It’s important to always keep in mind that a spirit who does not want to make contact will not make contact. You cannot force spirit contact or communication. You cannot demand that a spirit make itself available to you. (Well, you can demand all you want, but nothing compels the spirit to respond!) A spirit comes through because it wants to, because it desires to share a message with you. Your efforts to make contact will not disturb a spirit, or keep it from what it needs to do. Just as you won’t answer your doorbell if it rings when you are in the shower (if you even hear it), a spirit will not respond to communication attempts if it is otherwise occupied.

When a spirit chooses not to come through, it is likely because it is involved in something it does not want to interrupt. Just as there are activities here on the earth plane that require intense concentration and participation from start to finish, there are such events on the spirit plane. After all, insight and enlightenment don’t just happen! Spirits must work to understand and complete the lessons that are crucial to their missions on the higher side, just as you must do the same during your existence in the physical world.

Death by Choice: Suicide

Suicide is a great moral and spiritual dilemma for us on the earth plane. Nearly every faith system views suicide as an act contrary to the normal order of things, whether as an interference with the role of God in determining physical life and death or as a rift in the energy flow of the Universe. After a loved one takes his or her own life, those who remain on the earth plane are left not only with tremendous grief, pain, and guilt, but also to wonder what consequences await their loved one on the higher side.

Those remaining on the earth plane worry tremendously about what happens to those who pass by taking their own lives. What spirits tell us is that when someone passes through suicide, the higher side is a classroom of sorts where the spirit gets help thinking about and handling the issues that led to the suicide. Some souls, whether in their physical lives or on the spirit plane, are just not able to work through their problems and issues. On the higher side, there is help. There is always learning, and there is always a positive outcome somewhere.

Premonition

If you or someone you know are thinking about committing suicide, please seek professional help without delay. Suicide is not the answer to any question or problem. Nearly every community has a suicide hotline you can telephone for information and referral to an appropriate health-care provider.

Violent Death

We know that the spirits of those whose lives are taken through violence are more likely to remain earthbound than spirits that don’t experience such abrupt transitions. It is this circumstance, indeed, that resulted in the birth of modern Spiritualism, when the spirit of a man murdered in their house inspired the Fox sisters to attempt communication with him (see Chapter 3). Such traumatic and unexpected death moves the spirit from its physical body so abruptly that it sometimes cannot complete the transition.

When this happens, we on the earth plane can help, again through spirit contact and prayer. We can help send them to the light! Visualize the person moving toward the light, helping them see the hands that are reaching out to them so they can make the transition. It is sometimes necessary to convince the spirit that his or her physical body is gone, and there is no choice now but to move on. When done with love and compassion, this is greatly healing for the spirit and allows it to continue its transition.

Silver Cord

The soul’s inability or refusal to recognize that its physical body no longer exists was the theme of the 1999 silver screen hit The Sixth Sense. In this movie starring Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis, the main character was murdered but carried through the motions of his physical life as though he was still living them.

In many ways, the violent trauma is just as disruptive for loved ones who remain on the earth plane. They are left with many loose ends and much unfinished business. The process of helping the loved one come to grips with the reality of the situation and complete his or her crossing can also aid those on the earth plane in reaching similar acceptance. Establishing a spirit connection can also offer those on both sides the opportunity to say good-bye and bring closure.

Is This All Just Wishful Thinking?

No one likes to think of continuing in this life without the loved ones who bring so much joy and meaning to the journey. Yet inevitably, some loved ones will pass to the other side before us, and we will feel the separation as loss and pain. This is natural and normal, part of the experience of being human and of our existence in the physical world. (Many believe this is a core element of the soul’s mission on the earth plane, as loss and pain can be paths to enlightenment and insight.) So is the desire to make contact with those who have passed just wishful thinking, a means of easing hurt and grief?

To some extent, it certainly is. The sense of loss that comes with a loved one’s passing validates the spiritual existence for both the one who has passed and the one who remains on the earth plane. But beyond the pain, there is still the sense of connection.

You never really lose touch with those who are important to you (notice we said “are,” in the present tense, and not “were,” in the past tense), regardless of where in the Universe each of you is.

That your spirits are now on different planes changes your relationship, just as a friendship will change when one friend moves from Boston to San Francisco. The move doesn’t mean the end of your friendship. It just means the courses of your respective lives have changed and your relationship is changing as a result. Instead of meeting for coffee twice a week, you might send daily e-mail messages, weekly letters, and telephone each other late at night when the chaos of your busy daily lives finally quiets enough for you to enjoy uninterrupted conversation. Will you miss each other and the relationship you had when you both lived in Boston? Indeed! But will you still remain friends? Certainly, if that is what you both desire.

Spirit contact is of course more complex than managing a long-distance friendship. Your two spirits are now on journeys that are no longer contiguous. The separation is momentous for each, and allows each to move toward achieving its mission. And communication across this separation is momentous, too, because in addition to keeping you in touch with someone greatly important to you, it affirms (you know this as well as we do by now, so say it with us) the continuity of life. Once this happens, there is nothing wishful about it!

The Least You Need to Know

• There are many concepts about the soul’s beginnings, but no one really knows how or when a soul comes into existence.

• Astrology and numerology are among the metaphysical systems that explore and express the spirit’s journey, in its physical life as well as its spiritual existence.

• A spirit’s transition from the earth plane to the higher side is not always easy, and can be affected by events on this side.

• Those of us on the earth plane can offer assistance, through spirit contact and prayer, to an earthbound spirit completing its passage to the other side.

• Spirit contact is more than just wishful thinking. It is indisputable evidence that the life of the spirit extends beyond the life of the physical body.

Chapter 7

Spirit Guides

In This Chapter

• Your ever-present spirit guides

• An exercise for identifying your spirit guides

• An exercise for asking your spirit guides for help

• What’s in it for your spirit guides

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could share in the wisdom and learning the other side has to offer … from this side? You can, and probably already do, even though you might not know it! Spirit guides are with each of us all the time. Some people are very aware of their guides, and can even tell which guides are present. Some people only sense a spirit guide’s presence in times of need or stress, while others sense the presence of their guides a good deal of the time.

Spirit guides are here to watch out for us, help us understand life lessons, and help us find joy and wonder as we journey through our earth plane existence. And often, contact serves for the spirit guide’s progression as well. Spirits can learn by helping us through our experiences, too.

You and Your (Spirit) Shadow

Although your spirit guides are with you all the time you aren’t always aware of their presence, any more than you’re aware of the presence of your shadow. Just as familiarity blurs the details of your regular commute route or daily activities, the continuous presence of your spirit guides sometimes makes them just part of the psychic scenery.

Whether or not you know it, your spirit guides are always with you. They communicate with you on a higher level. Some of the information they have to share is instructional, helping you to discover the learnings of your lessons in this life. You might “hear” or “see” this communication, and be as consciously aware of it as you would be of a dialogue with an earth plane friend. Other times you simply take an action or make a decision that turns out right, and you might marvel at having done so. Do you feel as though someone is smiling at you then, giving you a pat on the back? Thank your spirit guides!

A key concept with spirit guides is “guidance.” Guidance is something that is optional. It is additional information, a different perspective, that you can use or not use, as you choose. You are not required to follow a spirit guide’s advice. What you do with the information your spirit guides provide is entirely up to you.

Spirit guides aren’t with us to live our lives for us, or to keep us from making poor choices and mistakes. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own life and the path it takes. Spirit guides are extra resources for you to tap into, and to draw from in considering the many elements of information that go into the decisions you make. It’s up to you to use or discard that advice, according to how it fits with other advice and information. You, and you alone, are accountable for the course of your life.

Premonition

Your safety always remains your responsibility! Don’t rely on spirit guides, however protected they make you feel, to keep you safe when you put yourself in hazardous situations. Remember that spirit guides are with us to help with the lessons of our lives, not to keep us from the consequences of potentially risky decisions.

Someone to Watch over You

Do you sometimes feel that your spirit guide is some sort of a heavenly protector who watches over you and keeps you from getting into harm’s way or into trouble? You might even refer to this protector as a guardian angel (although technically speaking, a guardian angel is an entirely different entity). You might have spirit guides that function in this way. They stay with you, surround you with light and energy, and help you find your way safely through the day and to your destination.

A Little Help from Beyond

During your existence on the earth plane, you develop a certain expertise. (If you’re truly talented, you might have several areas of expertise.) You might be an artist, a banker, an accountant, an engineer, a carpenter, an attorney, a doctor, a writer. When you pass to the other side, this expertise goes with you. As you evolve on the higher side, your first order of business is to complete whatever personal matters need attention. After that, you can use your expertise to guide people on the earth plane.

This is the help that comes to you through your spirit guides. They have expertise in areas that are important in your life, and come to offer guidance in those areas. Often, your spirit guides help you to move toward achieving your life’s mission.

Cast of Thousands

Most spirit guides were once people who walked the earth plane and now have an expertise that they can share with you. They can offer help with just about any need you might have, from the mundane to the spiritual. You might have one spirit guide who offers advice about matters relating to your professional life, and another that gives you a boost when you’re involved in physical activities. You might even have shopping guides!

Rita has a particular spirit guide that has been with her for a long time and is with her when she paints, yet when she does spirit drawings she can feel that other spirit guides come in to guide the process. She can see the shift in the style of her drawings, and then she knows a different guide is at work. When she paints her own spirit guides, she can feel them guiding her work to create the images that unfold on her canvases.

A spirit guide might have a heritage that is very different from yours. Yet if you look closely, you’ll find that there is some sort of connection. Perhaps there are elements of the spirit guide’s heritage that allow you to look at things differently than your own heritage and culture permit. Our spirit guides help us through the processes we need to complete so we can make the changes and experience the growth needed to make our own life paths unfold. Each of us is so unique! Some people don’t want to go any further than their neighborhood, while others want to travel around the world. Spirit guides give us inspiration for journeys that we want—or need—to take.

Friend, Family, Stranger?

A spirit guide has a particular skill or expertise to offer you, which is why you have different spirit guides at different times of your life, and even during different activities. Occasionally a spirit guide might be a friend or a family member who has passed to the higher side. But most of the time, your spirit guides are not the folks you’ll find in your family album. The only time a spirit guide might be a relative is when this person has an expertise that you need. If you’re a painter and your grandfather was a plumber, your grandfather doesn’t have much to offer you about painting—even though you might very much enjoy his spirit visits. A spirit guide comes to teach or assist you. A loved one comes to fuss over you, to tell you to eat your oatmeal and button your coat!

Sometimes you might believe a relative has come through to give you some help. Think this through carefully before accepting it. Did this relative have expertise in the area he or she is now offering assistance with? If Aunt Martha couldn’t balance a checkbook on the earth plane, she’s not going to become a financial whiz when she passes to the higher side! If you have someone coming through, whether directly or through a medium, who says she’s Aunt Martha, coming to give you financial planning advice from the other side, don’t feel that you have to accept the advice. Sometimes the signal isn’t quite clear; this either isn’t Aunt Martha, or it is but she hasn’t come to help you plan your financial future. Sometimes a visit is just a visit. Ask the spirit to clarify his or her identity and purpose.

Premonition

If a spirit guide’s apparent message doesn’t make sense to you, explore it further. Never make changes in your life solely on the basis of information that comes to you through spirit communication. As with all advice, explore all the possibilities and consequences before choosing a course of action.

Who Are Your Spirit Guides?

It’s fun and exciting to meet your spirit guides. Most of them are just as eager to meet you. Even though they’ve been a part of your life for who knows how long, they’ve operated in the shadows. Everyone enjoys recognition, and spirit guides are no exception. In fact, many spirit guides will go out of their way to help you figure out who they are.

Rita was painting a picture of her spirit guide when a friend came in and asked, “What’s his name?” Rita struggled with fragments of words and kept coming up with “Frangelico, Angelico, friar,” with words going back and forth, until finally “Fra Angelico” came to her. But this didn’t mean anything to Rita or her friend, so Rita just pushed it to the back of her mind.

Three weeks later, Rita heard her father’s voice say “Look it up!” This had been his constant message during his presence on the earth plane, so it came as no surprise that it was his message from the other side. So Rita went to the encyclopedia and found an entry for a Fra Angelico, a painter who lived in the fifteenth century. All the information that she had told her friend about this painting monk was verified in the encyclopedia.

End of the Day, November 1989, oil on canvas. Rita’s painting of her spirit guide Fra Angelico.

Being the skeptic that she is, Rita dug deeper for more information about Fra Angelico. At the Worcester Art Museum’s research room, Rita found an article written in approximately 1850, critiquing Fra Angelico in the same way that Rita’s work had been reviewed just a few months earlier! In both cases, the critiques stated, “Master of hands and faces but not enough painterly quality. Too interested in telling the story.” For Rita, this verified that Fra Angelico was indeed her spirit guide; the chances of something like this happening at random are pretty incredible.

Silver Cord

The Italian painter Fra Angelico (ca. 1400-1455), whose given name was Guido di Pietro, lived on the early side of the famous Italian Renaissance period in art that produced Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. One of his famous paintings, a fresco called The Annunciation, is in a church in Florence, the monastery of S. Marco. According to the “standard of standards” in art history basic texts, History of Art, art historian H. W. Janson writes Fra Angelico preserves “dignity, directness, and spatial order … but his figures, much as we may admire their lyrical tenderness, never achieve the physical and psychological self-assurance that characterizes the Early Renaissance image of man.”

Most people have a dominant guide who is present nearly all of the time. When Debbie (Rita’s co-author of this book) and Rita talked on the telephone for the first time, Rita immediately “met” Debbie’s spirit guide, even though Debbie was unaware of his presence. An energetic and powerful presence, this guide is a Native American in full, colorful dance attire. He dances with great energy, and it is this energy that gives Debbie her “Never say die!” approach to life. Now that she is aware of her spirit guide, Debbie feels his energy and his presence—especially when flying downhill on her bicycle! Debbie looks forward to getting to know her “Feather Dancer” and to learning what lessons he is here to help her learn.

Silver Cord

Guided meditation, or directed communication, is a common method of helping your conscious self to step aside. This opens and frees your mind, body, and spirit to be receptive to spirit contact.

You might, like Debbie, become aware of your spirit guides when a medium introduces you to them. Or you might already have a sense that a presence accompanies you through the activities of your daily life, or even a clear vision that you can already identify as a spirit guide. Whatever the case, your guides are with you to help you get the most from your life. Your guides are your spirit friends, and you can initiate communication with them just as you might pick up the telephone to call your earth plane friends.

Meet Your Spirit Guides: A Directed Communication Exercise

Who are your spirit guides? Here is an exercise that can help the guides disclose themselves to you. You might want to read through it several times. In that way, you can go through the steps without interrupting them to see what comes next. It’s not important that you follow each step exactly. What matters most is that you are comfortable, relaxed, and open to the experience and whatever information it reveals to you.

1. Make yourself comfortable in a location where you won’t have any distractions or interruptions.

2. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let the first breath clear your body, let the second breath open your mind, and let the third breath free your spirit.

3. Consciously form the thought: “This is my time to be one with God and for God to be one with me.” (God, of course, being the divine of your belief system or choice.) Set an intent to meet your spirit guide.

4. In your mind’s eye, see yourself sitting on a bench in an open, beautiful garden. There are flowers and trees, and the air smells fresh and clean. It is peaceful and calm.

5. Open your mind and your heart to welcome the visitor you know is approaching, with the same delight and excitement you might feel when a friend or a relative comes to visit.

6. Watch your visitor, your spirit guide, approach. Notice it, but don’t shift your focus to looking at the guide’s appearance, attire, and demeanor. Invite your guide to join you.

7. Open your spiritual senses to allow communication with your guide. Listen with your inner hearing, observe with your inner vision. Ask your guide to share with you whatever information he or she wishes to share.

8. When your spirit visitor appears ready to leave, thank him or her for coming to visit. Say good-bye in comfort and in joy, knowing that you can and will meet again.

9. Smell the clean, fresh air, and gaze at the beautiful flowers and trees in your garden. Gradually feel yourself rise from your bench. Step back, and feel yourself leaving the garden and returning to your physical location.

10. Become conscious of your breathing. Feel yourself back in your body, become conscious of your breathing. Wiggle your fingers and your toes, open your eyes.

Silver Cord

Among your spirit guides, there is generally one that is a dominant presence. He or she serves as the guardian who decides what other spirit contact to permit. In this gatekeeper role, your primary spirit guide “screens” your spirit visitors to keep you from being overwhelmed by contacts from spirit guests eager to visit with you. As you get to know your dominant spirit guide and become aware of his or her presence and interactions in your life, you’ll know when your gatekeeper steps aside to allow other communication to come through. Mediums like Rita often observe this when doing readings.

Identifying Your Spirit Guide

Now it’s time to put on your analytical thinking cap. Who is your spirit guide? What is his or her link to you, and what lessons is this guide in your life here to teach you? What information did your spirit guide share with you? Get your pen or pencil, and write down your impressions while they’re still fresh in your mind. If you need more space than we’ve provided here, write your responses on a separate sheet of paper.

1. Did you get a clear image of your spirit guide? Describe the image.

2. Does your spirit guide seem familiar? Did you get a sense of a name or a place that might help to identify this spirit guide? Write down any words or images that came to you.

3. Did your spirit guide appear to be male or female? What physical characteristics could you sense? Write the most complete description that you can.

4. What kind of clothing was your spirit guide wearing? Did his or her clothes appear to be historical or contemporary?

5. What cultural heritage did your spirit guide appear to embody? Is this a culture similar to, or very different from, your own?

6. Did your spirit guide seem familiar, as though you’ve met before? Describe aspects that feel familiar.

7. Did your spirit guide speak to you? What did your guide say? Describe the guide’s voice and what your guide said.

8. Did your spirit guide tell you his or her name, or provide you with clues? Did you have a sense of a name or a word floating in your thoughts? Write down your impressions.

9. What mannerisms did your spirit guide have? Did he or she make gestures, sit with legs crossed, or stand during the visit? Write down all that you can remember.

10. Write down any other details about the visit.

Cosmic Counsel

Rita’s spirit guide Fra Angelico is an ever-present teacher who helps Rita refine and improve her technique and skill as a painter. She can ask Fra Angelico for help, or he can come through with inspiration. Spirit guides are with us to teach and help us learn. Your spirit guides can help you enhance the abilities and talents that you have, and even discover those that you didn’t realize you had, but they cannot give you what you don’t have. It is always your role and responsibility to develop your gifts and aptitudes and make the most of them.

Mediums and Messages

When Rita did a second exercise to meet her spirit guide, Fra Angelico appeared again. Rita expected the room that the monk created for their second meeting would look like the cell in a monastery, but instead it looked like a large, elegant dining room. In the center of the dining table was a bowl of fruit. When Fra Angelico walked into the room, Rita waited, extremely excited to talk with him, but the monk stopped to eat a pear. She said to him, “I am a painter.” He smiled back and said, “I know.” Rita said, “I paint with much larger brushes than you did.” He chuckled and said, “I know that, too.” Then in the meditation they walked over to one of Rita’s paintings. She picked up a paint brush and his hand slipped over hers like a surgical glove, and their two hands painted together.

Life Lessons: A Directed Communication Exercise

You, too, can seek the counsel of your spirit guides. In the mediumship classes that she teaches, Rita uses the following exercise to help her students learn more about their spirit guides and the lessons they have come to teach. (The first three steps are the same ones you followed to establish contact with your spirit guides.)

1. Make yourself comfortable in a location where you won’t have any distractions or interruptions.

2. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let the first breath clear your body, let the second breath open your mind, and let the third breath free your spirit.

3. Consciously form the thought: “This is my time to be one with God and for God to be one with me.” Set an intent to meet your spirit guide or teacher.

4. With your eyes closed, see yourself on a magnificent university campus. There are beautiful gardens and buildings made of white marble all around you. (You can close your eyes if this helps you concentrate, or focus your sight on a specific point.)

5. As you stand on this campus, you see many paths of white, crushed stone. You know that one of these paths is yours, and you start to walk it.

6. Walk your path until it takes you to a beautiful building with a grand staircase leading inside. Climb the staircase and enter the building.

7. Stand quietly in the building’s entrance, waiting for instructions about where to go next. You will be directed to the room where you will meet your teacher, one who is guiding you from the higher side.

8. Go to this room, and enter it with an open mind. Have no expectations, no preconceived ideas about whom or what you will find in the room. Allow the room to unfold, and wait until someone else enters the room.

9. The person who joins you is your spirit guide, your teacher. Ask the guide what lesson you need to learn. A lesson will appear before you. Be still, stay in the quiet, and let the lesson become part of you.

10. When the lesson is complete, thank your spirit teacher, say good-bye, and know that you can and will meet again.

11. Walk back to the building’s entry, go through the door to the outside, and walk down the beautiful staircase to the path that brought you here. Follow the path back to the edge of the campus. Look around you, see that the sun is high and the sky is blue, and all is well.

12. Become conscious of your breathing. Feel yourself back in your body, become conscious of your breathing. Wiggle your fingers and your toes, open your eyes.

Silver Cord

Cleansing breaths help to clear your energy so that you are refreshed and receptive to whatever experiences and messages await you in spirit communication. They also help re-ground you when the communication ends, so that you are once again fully and completely in the here and now.

Understanding the Lesson

Now, while your lesson is fresh in your mind, write down the images that came to you. This is often very much like interpreting your dreams. Images and concepts might be symbolic and representative rather than literal and direct.

1. Were you able to determine right away which path was yours to follow?

2. What thoughts, emotions, or feelings did you experience when your spirit guide arrived and the lesson got underway?

3. Did you get a clear image of who your spirit teacher was? Describe the image. If you completed the “Meet Your Spirit Guides” exercise earlier in this chapter, was this the same spirit guide that came to you then?

4. Describe the lesson as it unfolded.

5. Did the lesson make sense to you? Did it relate to something that you do in your life, such as your profession, a talent that you have, or a hobby or special interest?

6. What images appeared in the lesson? Were there certain colors, sounds, or words?

7. How did you participate in the lesson?

8. Did you have questions during the lesson? Did you ask questions? Did you get answers? Did the answers make sense to you?

9. What meaning does the lesson have for you right now?

10. What aspects of the lesson will you want to explore further (such as through meditation, focused thinking, or writing in a journal) to try to understand their meanings or purposes?

The Path of Spirit Progression

The help that spirit guides give us is invaluable. It can take us to levels of understanding, skill, and ability that would take much, much longer for us to achieve without their help. Often, this interaction is a two-way street; that is, spirit guides benefit, too. They are progressing and evolving on the higher side, moving along the paths of their soul-missions just as we are doing the same in the paths of our physical lives. Teaching and learning are flip sides of the same coin; it is impossible to separate one from the other. In teaching us, our spirit guides are also learning for themselves.

Feel the Energy!

Your spirit guides bring much positive energy into your life. All you have to do is plug into it, and its many advantages are yours for the taking. Keep your heart, mind, and spirit open to the energy, and it can be the ground swell that carries you to new heights. Their lessons and advice can be enlightening. And they can be fun, bringing you much joy. Let the energy be with you!

The Least You Need to Know

• Often, you are unaware of the presence of your spirit guides. But they are there, helping you in many ways.

• Most people have multiple spirit guides, with different guides taking the lead depending on what you’re doing or what kind of help you need.

• You can invite your spirit guides to show themselves to you, so that you can meet them and know who they are.

• You can ask your spirit guides for specific help, and you can choose to decline advice and suggestions.

• Just as you learn from your spirit guides, your spirit guides can learn from you. This helps them evolve on the higher side.

Chapter 8

Earthbound Spirits

In This Chapter

• The mysteries of the Winchester mansion

• Recognizing earthbound spirits

• Identifying visiting spirits

• Why spirits visit and what messages they bring

In the decades framing the turn of the twentieth century, the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune built an elaborately confusing mansion to hide from and fool the ghosts she was convinced were haunting her. But what some consider ghosts, we refer to as earthbound spirits. Often, they remain on the earth plane because they have unfinished business. In a location where people observe phenomena happening, there’s always a reason the spirit has been unable to make its transition. Releasing the spirit is not a matter of “ghost-busting” to rid a house of an unwanted guest; it is a process of encouraging the spirit to move on and join loved ones on the higher side.

Most spirits that appear on the earth plane, however, come to us just for a visit, often to provide comfort and even to share in earthly joys such as the birth of a child, a wedding, or other life milestones. If you “feel” that someone you love who has passed over is with you, he or she probably is—and it is all about love, comfort, and healing.

A Perfect Life That Wasn’t to Be

Most ghost stories have an element of tragedy to them. The spirits of people whose deaths were in some way untimely are unable to complete their transitions, and remain sadly and often noisily stuck in the middle. Such tales are told around camp-fires and at slumber parties. One such story is that of the Winchester mansion.

In 1860, the American Civil War was just getting underway when a small company that was soon to become the Winchester Repeating Arms Company developed the weapon that would forever change the hazards of the battlefield. The Henry rifle had a magazine that could load and fire a bullet every three seconds. The North’s Union Army soon equipped its soldiers with this devastating weapon, and the man at the helm of Winchester Arms, Oliver Winchester, became instantly and phenomenally wealthy. Two years after the Henry rifle made its debut, Oliver’s son William took a bride: Sarah Pardee.

William and Sarah seemed to have the perfect life ahead of them when Sarah gave birth to a daughter four years later. But even wealth and social status couldn’t protect the fledgling family from the dangers of illness, and their baby Annie died not long after birth. The loss was more than Sarah could bear, and she slipped into the dark depths of depression where she remained for nearly 10 years. Sadly, it wasn’t long after her return to normal life that tragedy struck again. Tuberculosis claimed William’s life in 1881, leaving Sarah a widow and alone at age 42.

Sins of the Family

According to the lore surrounding Sarah Winchester’s story, after several years of grieving that took her to the brink of depression again, Sarah consulted a medium. Although Sarah hoped to be reunited with her husband and daughter, the reunion wasn’t quite what she anticipated. The medium claimed to make contact with William, but she brought the dire message from him that Sarah must use the vast fortune she inherited to atone for the sins of the Winchester family.

Sarah was to use her money to build a house where all of the spirits of those who died because of Winchester rifles could live for all eternity. She was to go West, the medium told her, until she found the location for this home. Because the Winchester fortune had accrued at a cost of countless lives, the medium said, Sarah was to dedicate the rest of her life to this endeavor.

Premonition

Although the message and instructions the medium gave to Sarah make for interesting storytelling, they should set off warning bells in your head. As we will caution you time and time again, spirit contact comes in goodness and healing, not for vengeance. There are many people (perhaps including Sarah herself, who reportedly was distressed to hear the wild tales people told about her) who believe that Sarah’s eccentric construction project was the result of a mind and an imagination overwhelmed by grief and loss. When Sarah’s safe was opened after her death, all it contained were the obituaries of her husband and daughter, and a locket of her daughter’s hair.

Sarah packed her things and moved West in 1892, where she found and purchased a small farmhouse on 160 acres on the outskirts of San Jose, California, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. The house didn’t stay small for long. With a $20 million inheritance and an income of $1,000 a day, Sarah began a building project that continued day in and day out, until her death in 1922. She even had a private railroad constructed to bring building materials and furnishings to the property. At that time, the house sprawled over 6 acres and had 160 rooms, some finished and some still under construction. Through the years that Sarah lived in it, the house was reported to have had more than 600 rooms built and then torn apart to make way for other rooms!

Dead-End Doorways and Stairways to Nowhere

The most important room in Sarah’s mansion was the séance room, where she went every day to commune with the spirits who told her what to build next. The Winchester mansion’s séance room was hidden deep in the center of the sprawling house. It had just one entrance but three ways out. One exit was through the door leading into the room, one through a closet and then a door with a knob only on the side of the séance room, and another that opened to a 10-foot drop into the kitchen below.

At some point, Sarah’s focus shifted from constructing a spirit sanctuary to building a safe haven for herself, apparently for protection from the ire of spirits angry at her and her husband’s family for designing and producing the instruments of their deaths.

The house was filled with stairways—40, by one count—that often went nowhere. One contained 42 steps that only rose 9 feet because each step was just 2 inches tall. Another stairway climbed to the ceiling, with no door at the top. There were doors that opened to walls or to drop-offs either to other rooms or to the outside. Chimneys rose to within feet of ceilings and then stopped, or extended beyond the roof but connected to nothing within the house. Sarah reportedly slept in a different bedroom every night, choosing—apparently at random—from among 25 or so bedrooms in the house.

Thirteen … Everywhere!

Many structures within the Winchester mansion reflected Sarah’s fascination with the number 13. There were 13 hooks in the séance room, upon which hung the 13 robes of different colors that Sarah wore while communing with the spirits. Windows inside and out contained 13 panes of glass; stairways had 13 steps. Sink drains had 13 holes, and chandeliers held 13 lights. The house had 13 bathrooms. Even Sarah’s will continued the pattern, containing 13 pages.

No one really knows why the number 13, traditionally viewed as unlucky, captivated Sarah to such an extent. It remains, along with the many other oddities of the mansion she built, a mystery. Today, the Winchester house is registered as a California historical landmark and is open for tours. Appendix B provides contact information.

For all of her eccentricities, Sarah Winchester had a generous and giving spirit. In 1909, Sarah donated half a million dollars to the Connecticut General Hospital Society to build a tuberculosis hospital in memory of her husband, who died of the disease. The facility Sarah’s ongoing donations built, a tuberculosis sanitarium called the William Wirt Winchester Hospital, outlived the disease it was designed to treat. Today, nearly a century later, the New Winchester Chest Clinic continues as an affiliation with Yale University’s School of Medicine to provide medical care for patients with a wide variety of lung and chest ailments.

Paranormal Phenomena: Is It a Haunting?

Paranormal phenomena are amazingly common. Among the people you count as your friends and even family, we’d bet that more of them than not have experienced what they believe to be ghosts. “I was walking through the hallway when suddenly there was a young girl standing there, just standing there looking at me!” says Aunt Sue at dinner one evening. Or your friend Jonathan confides, “It was eerie, man, but there was this guy standing in the hallway and when I said ‘hey’ to him, he just faded away!”

Are such experiences hauntings? It is possible that they are contacts with earthbound spirits. And that’s all that a haunting is: The presence of earthbound spirits. The phenomena that manifest as a result could be the spirit’s attempt to gain attention. It might be because the spirit is angry about something, such as having passed before feeling ready, or angry at a particular person about events that took place before the spirit’s physical death. It could also be the spirit’s attempt to ask for help in completing its transition. A spirit that feels trapped isn’t necessarily going to have the best communication skills! Think about it: When you are confused, angry, or hurt, you also don’t think, speak, or act with great clarity.

Spiritology

Paranormal phenomena are the events and sensations people attribute to the presence of “ghosts,” such as unusual sounds and sights for which there are no obvious explanations. An earthbound spirit is a spirit existing between the earth plane and the higher side, commonly referred to as a ghost.

As a Spiritualist medium, Rita is often called upon to visit houses where people feel there are hauntings. In one house she was asked to visit, Rita and the others with her could feel a heaviness as soon as they entered. It was as though the air itself was heavy, and it was difficult to breathe. The house’s new owner had a similar response and had become afraid to go into certain rooms where the sensation was particularly strong.

Rita and her group sensed the presence of a man, a woman, and two children. They felt that the man was very angry and abusive, and that he had locked the woman and the children in the attic—the room in the house where the unpleasant energy was the strongest. Rita and her group prayed and felt they released the earthbound spirits in the house to move on to the light. The house’s owner felt an immediate shift in the energy throughout the house, and was vastly relieved.

Six months later, the owner called Rita and her group back, saying that the earthbound spirit had returned, as a threatening presence. To the group’s surprise, the negative energy was indeed back—and much stronger. Rita and her colleagues finally realized that this negative energy surged when the homeowner, a woman, was home alone, with her husband away. It became clear that the earthbound spirit was very strong and defiant, and could hide at will. An abuser in his physical life, this spirit had developed a pattern of behavior that made him extraordinarily abusive when he was alone with his wife and children, yet outwardly ordinary when others were present. It took three visits for Rita’s group to finally release the damaged spirit, so he could complete his transition to the higher side—where, presumably, he had a lot of work to do.

Apparitions and Visions

You’ve probably experienced visual manifestations of spirit presence—a flash that you see out of the corner of your eye, a shadowy figure that appears and then disappears, perhaps even a clear image of a loved one who has passed. Apparitions are among the most common experiences people have among paranormal phenomena. Sometimes apparitions just appear and then disappear, while other times the spirit’s image remains to engage in communication of some sort. Often, making a visual appearance is a spirit’s way of saying, “See! It’s really me!” to validate or authenticate its identity.

Spiritology

An apparition is a visual manifestation of spirit energy. It might take the form of indistinct shadows or lights, or appear as the complete image of a person.

Did You Hear That?

From footsteps to moans and cries, the sounds of spirits tend to frighten people more than visual images because there is more of a mystery to them. When you can see something, it takes on a level of tangibility regardless of whether you can actually reach out to touch it. When you hear something that doesn’t seem real, you find yourself questioning it. What is it? Is it harmful?

Sounds and noises are simply other ways in which energy becomes tangible. They activate a physical sense in you—hearing—that gets your attention. Sometimes this is the only means by which a spirit chooses to communicate with you, while other times the spirit might subsequently appear as a visual image as well.

I Didn’t Touch It!

One of Rita’s friends was among the early casualties of the AIDS epidemic. A fun-loving prankster in physical life, Richard wasn’t about to let his friends mope about his passing—or celebrate the joys in their lives without him. He wanted to make sure they knew he was still with them. At a dinner party, he filled the air with the fragrance and sensation of rich Godiva chocolate—his favorite indulgence. Rita returned to her painting studio one evening to find a doll sitting on the top of a canvas that was hanging nine feet above the floor, posed exactly as the figure in the portrait! Spirits often move objects around to let you know they’re there, and to let you know who they are.

Why a Spirit Stays

Spirits generally remain earthbound when they have not accepted their passings. Perhaps the spirit’s physical life came to a sudden end as the result of an accident or an act of violence, leaving the spirit confused about where it belongs. Sometimes the spirit cannot let go of its earth plane existence, either afraid to complete passage to the higher side or unwilling to release its connection to a loved one still on the earth plane. While we tend to think of earthbound spirits as “trapped,” they’re really just in need of help to make the transition from the physical world to the spirit world.

This doesn’t do much to advance the spirit’s progression and evolution, of course. It’s as though the spirit is treading water, so to speak. An earthbound spirit doesn’t necessarily choose to resist passage (although some spirits do); it just doesn’t realize it has the choice to continue the passage. There are circumstances and events in your life that leave you feeling confused and unsure of what to do next; imagine the confusion and uncertainty you might feel if you were suddenly uprooted from the existence that’s become familiar!

Sometimes a spirit has unfinished business on the earth plane, especially if physical death came unexpectedly. A spirit might want to guide a surviving spouse or partner through the difficult decisions that accompany physical death, such as making funeral arrangements or wrapping up financial loose ends. We don’t usually think of such a spirit as earthbound in the traditional sense; once the unfinished business is completed, the spirit will feel free to move on in its transition.

Just Visiting

Sometimes spirits just like to visit, to let you know they are fine and to stay in touch with you, like your earth plane friends and family do. At first, this kind of contact can be disconcerting, as it was for one family whose son Jeff passed tragically and unexpectedly as a young adult. Although the family was stunned and grieving, they also remembered with great joy the happiness and delight the fun-loving young man had brought into their lives. They often reminisced about his kind and generous nature.

Not long after Jeff’s passing, family members started noticing phenomena. The flowers on the dining room table seemed to be in a different place every time someone came into the room. Sometimes, there were voices and noises that sounded like Jeff and his friends had come over for an afternoon of socializing, as had often been the case during his life. The family called Rita and planned a time for her to come to their house to verify whether these phenomena were indeed communications from Jeff.

When Rita entered the home, she anticipated that she would encounter the energy of an earthbound spirit, the young man’s spirit. She did her opening prayers, and then began walking through the house. Much to her surprise, joyous spirits filled the house. Many, many relatives and friends were there, strong presences that felt like they were gathered to celebrate a momentous occasion.

Rita shared her perceptions with the family, who was overjoyed. They all began talking about Jeff, when suddenly something caught Rita’s attention and she pointed to the dining room table. “Do you see the flowers moving?” she asked. The family members nodded. This was one of the phenomena they saw frequently.

At the family’s invitation, Rita opened herself to contact with the spirits who were present. The first to come through was Jeff’s grandfather who gave such a full description of himself that his identity was undeniable. Over the course of the next few hours, no fewer than a dozen of the young man’s relatives and friends came through with messages of love and thanks.

Later in the evening, as Rita sat talking with the family, each time she mentioned the grandfather she would hear the sound of tinkling glass, like wind blowing through a chandelier. After this happened a few times, the mother asked Rita if she could hear the sound and Rita realized that everyone in the room could hear it. Everyone was very excited; this was yet another validation. The tinkling sounds continued through the evening, as if in response to the conversation.

As Rita was getting ready to leave, the young man’s mother gently touched her arm. “Can you tell me who held Jeff’s hand when he made the crossing?” she asked. Rita put the question out. To everyone’s surprise, the spirit who came through was a woman, the mother of a friend. The woman had been very ill in the months before her death, and Jeff had visited her most afternoons. When Jeff passed, it was this woman’s spirit who reached out to take his hand, to ease and guide his passage to the higher side.

Silver Cord

Spirits sometimes visit to offer comfort in times of sadness, encouragement when times are tough, and healing energy when you are injured or ill (physically or emotionally). You might feel this contact as a gentle touch, a breeze, or even a surge of energy. It is for you; it is to help you. Welcome these contacts, and give thanks to those who bring them to you.

Advice and Warning

“Don’t step off the curb!” shouts a voice in your head, and, startled, you hesitate, one foot floating just above the street. The crosswalk light is green for pedestrians; why shouldn’t you cross? Then, from nowhere, a car screams into the intersection, running the red light. Had you started across the street, you’d now be a hood ornament. Give thanks to your spirit guides and spirit visitors!

Advice and caution from those on the higher side can take many forms, and often influences your actions without your awareness. You might “just have a bad feeling” about someone who smiles at you in the coffee shop and leave without getting your morning latte, then read the next day in the newspaper that the person held the shop’s customers hostage at gunpoint for four hours. Or you might decide to buy a newspaper from a street-corner vendor, even though there’s one waiting on your doorstep at home, then open it to find an ad for an apartment that’s just what you’re looking for … and you get it because you’re the first one to call. Coincidence? We don’t think so!

Helping an Earthbound Spirit Find Release

Movies have made millions, even billions, of dollars from the “ghost-busters” theme, crafting stories around every imaginable twist and turn. But the real issue isn’t “busting” wandering spirits so they’re no longer nuisances in the physical world. It is helping them to complete their transitions, so they can move on to the next phase of their evolution and growth as spirits.

When an earthbound spirit is present, you often feel a sense of heaviness in the air. You might get goose bumps, and feel like you need to leave right away—the “uh-oh” feeling. It’s important to pay attention to these messages; they are warnings. Earthbound spirits are troubled and confused, and need help to cross to the other side, where they should be.

We on the earth plane can help earthbound spirits break free from whatever is holding them. Just as with all spirit contact, it is important to do this with the highest intent and with divine protection. Do not embark on this alone; even experienced mediums go in groups when called upon to help earthbound spirits find release. Instead, seek help from a professional who is consistent with your belief system—clergy, shaman, medium.

And remember, many so-called hauntings are nothing more than visits from spirit friends and relatives who just want to stay in touch with you! They might have messages of advice or comfort for you, or might simply want to let you know that they are well and still connected with your life, even though they are no longer in physical forms.

Enjoying the Company of Spirits

Your loved ones who enjoyed sharing the adventures of your life when they were on the earth plane want to continue enjoying that sharing, even though they can’t be with you physically. They come in and out of your life at will, free to move between the spirit world and the earth plane. They are not earthbound, but simply come to visit you and to remain a part of your daily life—even if you’re not aware of their presence. And if you do sense that the spirit of great-grandmother Maria or Uncle Sylvester is admiring your new baby or your new house, smile!

The Least You Need to Know

• The Winchester mansion remains a great and entertaining mystery. No one really knows why Sarah Winchester built this convoluted and sprawling structure.

• Many “hauntings” are simply visiting spirits who bring messages of love and comfort. It is never their intent to frighten you.

• A spirit might become earthbound when its physical life ended with significant unfinished business.

• Visiting spirits come and go freely. They are not bound to the earth plane but visit as they please.

Part 3

Invoking the Spirits

Spirit communication often is highly symbolic, as are dreams. This can make it challenging to figure out the true meaning of the connection. Often, it isn’t what it seems—but it is always something that you need to hear or receive.

The chapters in this part explore the symbolism of spirit communication and provide information about the skills it takes to allow spirit communication to take place. Exercises give you opportunities to practice your abilities.

Chapter 9

Incoming Messages

In This Chapter

• Recognizing spirit contact

• Confirming spirit identity

• Defining your intent and limits

• Clarifying confusing messages

It’s an important day in your life—could be a graduation, a wedding, the birth of a child, or any event of significance. You retreat to a favorite quiet space to regroup and prepare yourself, and suddenly you feel like the room is full of people, even though clearly you are alone. You might even experience the sensation of hearing voices or seeing people sitting or standing around, even though you know no one else is there. What gives?

Don’t worry … you’re not hallucinating or losing your mind. It’s just your spirit support team, here to give you loving advice! Significant life events require great energy—physical, emotional, and psychical. Just as your earth plane friends might rally around to give you strength and support, so, too, might spirit visitors from the higher side.

Picking Up the Signals

When you perceive a spirit presence, it’s no accident. It might be just the spirit of a loved one who wants to drop by to say hi, taking joy in your new, heightened awareness of existence beyond the earth plane. Often, spirits have been around you for much longer than you recognize, just waiting for you to reach a point of openness that permits you to know of their presence.

It’s for You!

Just as your friends and family here on the earth plane drop in or telephone, the spirits of loved ones on the other side like to come by for a visit now and then. You might sense a loved one’s spirit presence when you are engaged in an activity that you and your loved one enjoyed together when you were both on the earth plane, such as hiking or riding a motorcycle or working in the garden. Or you might have the feeling of a loved one patting you on the back for a job well done, or giving you a hug of comfort during a difficult time.

How do you know that this is a loved one and not a spirit guide (which we discussed in Chapter 7)? Sometimes it might be hard for you to tell, but generally your spirit guide is present to provide specific expertise and a loved one’s spirit comes to give loving advice. Of course, if a loved one had a particular expertise that you happen to need, you could end up with the loved one’s spirit serving as a spirit guide! By and large, the spirits of friends and family visit just as friends and family might visit on the earth plane.

Robin brought her young daughter Lilly to the Angel’s Loft to have her spirit guide drawn. A drawing started to appear on the paper of a youngish woman, about 30. Robin recognized the woman from photographs she’d seen of her mother-in-law, who indeed had passed to spirit at a young age. When she brought the spirit drawing home her husband Richard gasped, speechless. He truly felt his mother present, guiding their daughter Lilly.

Many people find that their relationships with friends and family in spirit become deeper and more connected as spirit contact continues. Perhaps you were unable to form the kind of relationship that you wanted to have with your father or your sister in the physical world. As a spirit evolves on the higher side, he or she learns lessons that, for whatever reasons, couldn’t be completed during physical life. On the higher side these lessons become apparent, and the spirit progresses in understanding and knowledge.

Silver Cord

Part of the healing that can take place through spirit contact is a mending of rifts that existed on the earth plane, allowing the relationship to evolve. You might also gain knowledge and understanding, and feel closer to your father or your sister in this spirit relationship than you did in your physical world relationship.

Who’s There?

How do you know who is trying to make contact? This can be a great challenge. When you are working with a medium, the spirit will convey images and impressions intended to give you indisputable evidence of his or her identity. Many spirits that come through to Rita begin by sharing the experiences of their passings. These details are generally easy to verify. The spirit might then offer pieces of information that only you, the loved one on the earth plane, could know or would understand.

Rita once held a circle to communicate with spirit loved ones of a group of friends. Because Rita knew each of these people quite well, when she opened the circle with a prayer and established intent, she asked that each spirit give some piece of information that she couldn’t already know. One by one, spirit visitors came through to greet the friends in the circle. When it came to Rita’s husband David, it was his father who came through and showed himself sitting in a canoe. Rita immediately told her husband, “But this isn’t the canoe we used to use,” referring to family canoe trips they used to take.

David asked what the canoe looked like, and Rita said it was green with wood trim. David then asked what color of green, and Rita replied, “God-awful house paint green.” David was stunned. When he was 16, he’d brought a canoe home from camp. The first thing his father said to him was, “Where did you get that God-awful house paint green canoe?”

This single detail became the validating comment for David, who until that time had been quite a skeptic about spirit communication. It is this level of detail that you should expect when a spirit claims to be coming through for you. Irrefutable identification is just that: There is no mistaking the message as something else!

Making a correct spirit identification isn’t always this easy or straightforward. It’s important to accept, at first, the information that comes to you without attempting to pin down an identity or shape the information to meet an assumption or expectation. Sometimes the spirit coming through is a distant relative that you might not recognize at first, or a person outside your family. You might need to look through photos, search your memory, and even talk with other people before you are able to figure out the visiting spirit’s identity. When you do finally make the connection, however, there will be no question in your mind about the spirit’s identity!

Establishing Intent

Establishing intent is about making it clear why you are seeking spirit contact. You are asking for divine assistance and protection. And you are agreeing to proceed with an open mind, heart, and spirit, receptive to the spirits that choose to communicate with you and to the messages that they bring.

Establishing intent is not, as people sometimes misunderstand, about asking for contact with specific spirits or for specific information. You can do either of these, of course. But you may or may not get what you ask for. Only when you free yourself from the limitations of expectations will you be able to receive what the spirits are showing or bringing you.

Mediums and Messages

Rita, like most mediums, begins every spirit contact with a prayer to establish intent, welcome the divine, and invite the light. This reminds those on the earth plane who are participating in the spirit communication of the special and divine nature of the contact, and puts out positive energy signals to the higher side to attract positive energy in response.

Fear Not … These Are Friendly Forces

It’s natural to be afraid in unfamiliar circumstances. It might scare you to realize that you have visitors from the higher side, if you’re not accustomed to being aware of their presence. But these visitors are in fact familiar to you—just not in the ways you might be expecting. Your spirit guests show up to give you support, encouragement, and sometimes just company. There is no reason to be fearful.

If you continue to feel afraid, you need to look for the reason. Are you in a strange location? Is there something about the circumstances that is activating a psychical alarm within you? Is this an intuition alert that something isn’t quite right? It’s important to pay attention to these signals, and to respond appropriately. Always remember: Spirit visitors don’t come through to scare you.

Physical Phenomena

Spirits might choose to use physical phenomena to make their presence known to you. You might see shadows, flashes of light, objects moving (or objects having been moved). You might hear voices or other sounds, or feel a touch. Spirits love to work with electrical appliances, and they will sometimes turn them on and off with only the use of “spiritual remote” or spirit energy. Spirits choose the means of contact that is most likely to be effective. If you are by nature skeptical, the contact is likely to be bold and unmistakable so it catches and keeps your attention. A visiting spirit might appear as a full and complete image standing in your hallway or sitting at your kitchen table, knowing that you will immediately recognize his or her image and identity.

If you are accustomed to spirit contact and familiar with the spirits who visit you, the physical phenomena might be subtle. You might wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing when you don’t own a coffeepot, and instantly think of your grandmother who used to drink a dozen cups a day. You might come home from work and automatically throw your jacket over the back of a kitchen chair, only to have it land on the floor because the chair has been neatly pushed against the table—not where you expected it to be.

Some forms of physical phenomena are quite sophisticated or specialized, such as spirit drawing and automatic writing. These are typically phenomena that manifest to mediums (and can manifest to you when your mediumistic abilities are activated), or may come to you because you have an ability that allows you to use them. We discuss these phenomena in Chapter 10.

Mental Phenomena

Mental phenomena make use of your psychical, or spiritual, senses: clairvoyance (inner vision), clairaudience (inner hearing), and clairsentience (inner sensing or knowing). It is sometimes harder to recognize mental phenomena as spirit contact because your mind is the screen upon which so many of the interactions of your life play out. These phenomena can be extraordinarily lucid, and yet you know full well they are not “real”—that is, that they are not happening in the realm of the tangible world. It’s more about you sensing them, even as they play out in such vivid detail that they feel real.

You might worry that these experiences are nothing more than the products of your (active) imagination, or even dismiss them as such. At first, spirit communication does feel like imagination! Rita tells her mediumship students to think of it like learning to play the piano. When you first start, you hit a lot of wrong notes. Maybe even more wrong notes than the right ones! But as you play more, you get better. You hit fewer wrong notes, and those that you do hit are more obvious. You correct them immediately, and the next time you play them right.

The same process unfolds with spirit contact. At first, it all seems like imagination or like wishful thinking. Of course the image of your close friend Connie is in your head; you love her and miss her now that she’s passed to the higher side. And it makes sense to have this little internal dialogue going with her. After all, the two of you could talk for hours. You must be just remembering conversations that once took place. But then it occurs to you that the dialogue is actually about something that occurred after Connie’s passing, something current. It feels, in fact, as though you and Connie are having a real-time conversation.

Silver Cord

It’s the minutiae, the detail, that makes this real, that makes it clear that this is spirit contact and communication. Not, “Your mother used to bake cakes,” but, “Your mother always used Duncan Hines cake mixes.”

This is the point at which you begin to realize that this goes beyond your imagination. Could it be that you truly are communicating with Connie? “Yes, of course, dearie!” comes the response, in Connie’s unmistakable tone and with the nickname for you that only she could get away with using. Yes, you could’ve imagined the whole thing. But you know you didn’t. This is not just your imagination.

Setting Limits

You don’t have to accept spirit contact just because it’s there, any more than you have to answer the telephone because it’s ringing. (Likewise, spirits don’t have to accept your “calls” when you want to make contact.) But how often will you let a telephone ring? Most of us jump to answer, no matter what we’re doing! Learning to just let it ring is a key lesson in taking control of your life. And so it is with spirit contact. Just because Connie wants to chat doesn’t mean you have to let her in. You can refuse spirit contact by gently and kindly asking that she come back when you’re finished with whatever is keeping you busy at the time. You might even want to say this out loud. If the message is important, such as a warning of some sort, the spirit will persist and you’ll have little choice but to notice. But for most other communication, your spirit visitors will simply call again.

When it is you who is initiating spirit contact, a good opportunity to set your limits is when you establish intent. As you invite divine light, request the limits that you desire. Rita establishes limits around how much she is willing to physically feel through spirit. She will allow a tingling sensation in the affected part of the body that took the spirit to the higher side, but she will not accept any sensations that go deep enough to cause discomfort or pain. This arises from her first experience as a medium, in which she so strongly felt the spirit’s passing from a heart attack that she felt like her own heart was about to explode. Her teacher immediately intervened, and from that time on Rita established limits with her spirit helpers as to what she was willing to accept.

Your limit range might be “please respect the time I’ve set aside for family” or “let’s communicate after I finish my work.” Sometimes spirits want to come to you at night when you are sleeping, because people are more receptive in the dream state or in the altered state of sleep. Setting limits helps define and shape the spirit signals that come to you. A spirit cannot make or continue contact unless you allow it, although you might need to articulate your desires to make them clear.

Sometimes spirit messages come in fast and furious, and you might want to shelter your receptiveness. Or there are times when you don’t want to be disturbed. You can establish a boundary of protection—what Rita calls “closing the door but not locking it.” This lets your spirit guides know that if there is an urgent message, they can still reach you. But otherwise, you don’t want to be disturbed for the defined time. Begin by saying prayers of your understanding and surrounding yourself with white light. Some people see this as a tower, others see it as a globe, and still others see it as a pyramid.

Premonition

If ever you feel uncomfortable during a spirit contact, break off the contact immediately. Say out loud, “This contact is over!” Just as you wouldn’t continue an interaction with a physical entity if it made you uncomfortable, don’t do so with a spirit entity. If you are in a class, ask the teacher for help rather than disrupting the circle.

Many times, spirit communication is brief and self-limiting. A spirit breezes in for a chat and breezes right back out again. When you’ve had a more extended spirit visit, you can end the contact by saying good-bye, just as you might end a visit with any friend. It’s nice to thank the spirit for visiting and sharing with you. Sometimes the spirit just leaves, and you know he or she is gone even though neither of you brought the visit to a formal end.

Cosmic Clutter and Spirit Static

When you think about it, there’s really a lot of communication taking place between the earth plane and the higher side. How do you know how much of it is relevant to you? At first, signals from the higher side can be confusing. This newly awakened receptiveness in you is eager to accept whatever comes its way. But like a radio that receives a dozen signals on the same frequency, there can be so many signals coming through that they overwhelm your ability to sort and understand them.

Often, your lead spirit guide will screen these signals on your behalf. Your spirit guide might block the irrelevant signals and restrict the relevant ones to times and settings in which you can be receptive. A medium can function in a similar way, accepting one spirit at a time to come through with his or her message.

Psychic Confusion

It is possible to confuse psychic contact with mediumistic contact, particularly if a medium is making contact on your behalf. This is why it is so important for you to establish your intent to be open to whatever will be, and to try to clear your mind of expectations. A good psychic (and all good mediums are good psychics) will receive the psychical signals of your expectations, which can cloud mediumistic signals. Instead of allowing Uncle Jack to come through because that’s who’s there with a message, the medium might get the image of your husband Joe because that’s who’s on your mind.

Does the message or communication from the spirit seem oddly jumbled or not quite right? When you experience confusion, you need to step back and sort things out. You might end the spirit contact for the time being and think things through in your mind. Try writing down your impressions. Put them away for a day or two, and then look at them again. Consider these questions:

• Are there inconsistencies that jump out at you?

• Can you detect fragments of identifying characteristics that point to different people?

• Who’s been on your mind lately?

• Are you truly open to receiving whomever comes through, or do you have your heart set on making contact with someone in particular?

• What do you want to have happen or what do you desire from this contact?

When you try again to establish a connection, speak your intent out loud. If you truly want to make contact with a specific spirit, make that part of your intent. It may or may not happen, depending on whether the spirit wants to make contact with you, but at least your desire for the contact is out there and the focus of your mind is now consistent with your intent.

Resolving Fear and Apprehension

A little apprehension is normal whenever you are doing something that is important to you or that you are unsure about. But you should also feel excited and happy about establishing communication with spirits on the higher side. Doing so gives you wonderful opportunities to feel the love and healing that those on the higher side want to extend to you.

If you are fearful about spirit contact, try to identify what worries or frightens you. Write it down or speak it out loud, so it is out there in a tangible way. Then you can explore why you feel the way you do. Seek the services of a professional medium who can make contact on your behalf and help you understand the messages that come through for you.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

Spirit communication is the ultimate gift of love. It establishes that there is in fact life beyond physical death, and that what matters to us in our physical lives has value in the bigger picture of existence. It gives us comfort, healing and knowledge, enriching our lives on the earth plane. Spirit communication also shows us that the connections that bring pleasure and joy to our souls continue, unlimited by the borders of physical existence.

The Least You Need to Know

• Spirits use various methods to make themselves known to you.

• Physical phenomena take place in tangible ways, such as objects that move.

• Mental phenomena take place in your mind, without outward manifestations.

• At first, it’s natural to be uncertain whether your experiences are imagination or spirit communication.

• You are always in control of spirit contact.

Chapter 10

A Little Help from the Pros

In This Chapter

• Determining a medium’s qualifications

• The medium’s view of spirit communication

• What it’s like to have a reading

• How to steer clear of fakes and frauds

• Healing through spirit contact

If this is your loved one, why would you need an intermediary—a medium—for communication between the two of you to take place? You don’t, always; many people enjoy regular and ongoing communication with loved ones who have passed to the other side. But spirit contact is often subtle. Communication on the spirit plane is much different than here on the earth plane, and it often requires the assistance of an “interpreter” to get messages through—going both directions.

Just as it isn’t always easy for us to get a good connection with those on the other side, it’s sometimes challenging for spirits to communicate with us in ways that make sense in our physical world. Mediums have highly developed abilities in these areas, and put their skills to use to help those of us on the earth plane make contact with loved ones on the other side.

Medium, Well Done

From accountants to writers, most professionals complete some sort of specialized education and training that gives them the core qualifications they need to work in their fields. This establishes a certain level of consistency, at least in theory, about the professional’s capabilities and proficiency. When you go to a doctor or a lawyer, you can assume that there is a certain baseline of education and expertise in place. Doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals must pass certain certification or licensing tests before the law allows them to be in practice.

Being a good medium requires a blend of psychical skill, book knowledge, and practice. There is much more to spirit contact than simply putting yourself out there as a conduit for spirit energy! A medium must know how to handle situations that might arise from the spirit world as well as from the physical world. Spirit communication is often intense for those involved—you, the spirit visitor, and the medium. Many mediums have some background in counseling or psychology, which gives them additional skills for helping people deal with the information that comes through as well as grief.

When considering the services of a medium, ask about the medium’s education and experience (more about choosing a medium a little later in this chapter). Both are important; it is through their blending that a medium acquires expertise.

Training and Experience

Good mediums spend considerable time learning and refining their skills and abilities. There are a number of schools and organizations throughout the world that provide teaching for mediums. (Appendix B lists some of them.) Such programs teach not only mediumistic skills but also knowledge, concepts, and theories about matters of the spirit and existence. Some programs are structured to take a certain amount of time, while others are self-paced and designed to accommodate people who also have other activities in their lives.

Premonition

In most locations in the United States, there are no laws that regulate the qualifications of mediums (beyond the general laws that apply to anyone in any kind of business, of course). It doesn’t hurt to check with your local Better Business Bureau and your state’s Office of the Attorney General to see whether there are complaints about the medium you are choosing.

Many mediums also teach mediumship classes (as Rita does). Not only does this extend their expertise to those new to mediumship, but it also helps them to keep their own skills sharp. In so many ways, the best way to learn is to teach!

Finding the Medium Who Is Right for You

The best way to find a good medium is to work through a source that you trust. If you have friends in metaphysical fields, start by asking for their recommendations. Schedule appointments to meet with several mediums, either by phone or in person, so you can understand the medium’s training, experience, and expertise. Ask questions such as:

• Have you received formal training in mediumship? If so, where?

• Are you affiliated with any organizations or groups, such as the Spiritualist Church, Church of the Divine Man, a metaphysical center or college, or other faith-based structures?

• How long have you been a practicing medium?

• How many readings do you do in a week or a month?

• How would you describe your mediumistic approach?

• What other education, experience, and background do you have?

• What do you charge for your services?

Often, the answers you get will lead you to other questions and discussion. And pay attention to your intuition! Are you feeling that this is someone you want to work with? Keep in mind that this person could connect you with very powerful and personal messages. Do you have a sense of trust when you talk to this person?

You might feel that you just know this is the right medium for you, and that is good. But if you are new to this, it’s to your advantage to at least go through the same conversation with other mediums recommended to you. It’s also smart to ask for the names of references that you can contact. This gives you a broader base of information from which to make your decision.

Silver Cord

At the end of your interview with a prospective medium, ask for three professional references that you can contact. Then contact them! Ask very generally about the medium’s skills, and let the person talk.

What a Medium Experiences During Spirit Communication

Spirits manifest themselves to mediums in different ways, and each medium has a different way of experiencing spirit contacts. Most mediums have a dominant mode—clairvoyant (psychic sight), clairsentient (psychic intuition), or clairaudient (psychic hearing)—through which they experience spirit contact. This is the psychical, or spiritual, sense through which a spirit first makes contact.

For Rita, spirit contact often begins as a blend of clairvoyance and clairsentience. The first information to come through is usually an awareness of how the person appeared in physical life, such as whether it was a man or a woman, and how the person passed to the other side. She often can feel how tall the person was in physical life, and she feels the person’s weight as though her body is growing larger or smaller. Then she typically feels the condition of passing, which expresses itself as a twinge in the related part of her body. Finally, all of Rita’s inner, or psychic, senses become activated to provide full information about the person.

Other mediums might work differently based on what gifts they have. Spirits will use whatever abilities and talents the medium has, and use them in ways that are comparable to the medium in terms of intellectual and emotional development. It’s important to remember that the medium’s abilities, interests, and biases all influence the messages that the medium brings through. A good medium will tell you this up front and again and again, reminding you to put the information you receive into the framework of your life.

The medium should not ask a lot of questions about you before doing a reading. The less the medium knows about you, the more confident you can be that the information coming through is genuine.

Special Forms of Spirit Communication

Spirits can be quite creative when it comes to finding ways to communicate. Activating psychical senses sometimes isn’t enough; the spirit desires a more tangible impression. These techniques require practice, practice, practice for the medium to become truly skilled.

Automatic Writing

In automatic writing, the spirit takes control of the medium’s hand to move a pen or a pencil across paper. (Some modern mediums even use computers—automatic typing!) The message might be in a language other than those the medium speaks. The handwriting is often strikingly different from the medium’s handwriting, and might be difficult to read or even illegible. It takes great patience for a medium to develop adeptness with automatic writing. Compared to psychical abilities such as clairsentience, automatic writing is quite slow and tedious. But some spirits prefer this means of communication.

Sometimes, automatic writing is your first clue that you have mediumistic abilities. You might be sitting there doodling when suddenly the pen takes off on what seems to be its own accord and begins forming symbols or words. Go with the flow! With much practice, automatic writing can become a tool of communication for you. Those who are skilled in automatic writing often blend it with other psychical skills, and develop a system of asking questions and receiving answers. More typically, automatic writing conveys messages that the spirit simply wants to deliver.

Spirit Drawing

Spirit drawing is Rita’s special expertise. A spirit comes through to her, and her spirit guides use her artistic talent to draw the spirit’s image. A spirit drawing presents a visual likeness of the spirit as he or she is showing at the time, which can be younger or even older than the person was at the time of passing. Spirits tend to show themselves either as they know you will recognize them, or as they want you to see them.

The latter was the case when Rita did a spirit drawing of her co-author Debbie’s father. When Debbie first saw the drawing, she felt disappointment. Some of the features looked like her father, but overall the drawing wasn’t what she remembered. So Debbie started going through the pictures she had of her father, from his childhood through the year of his passing. Nothing really matched up.

Disappointed, Debbie started putting everything back. She picked up a stack of pictures and papers, and a newspaper clipping fell out and landed in her lap: a faded photograph of Debbie’s father, exactly the image in Rita’s spirit drawing! Debbie’s father directed Rita to produce an image of himself that he preferred, and that he wanted to convey to Debbie. He wanted Debbie to see him not only as her father, but in the larger context of his experience of life.

For many people, spirit drawings are the ultimate evidence of the continuity of life. There is nothing quite like the feeling that rushes through you when you see the image of a loved one appear at the hands of someone who could not possibly know what this person looked like. As the cliché goes, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Rita and Debbie live on opposite coasts, so Rita did Debbie’s reading by telephone and then mailed the spirit drawing to her. Debbie’s father chose to present himself in a way that was at first unfamiliar to Debbie but as he was familiar to his friends. The drawing didn’t match any of Debbie’s photos, but turned out to be an amazing likeness of a photo from an old newspaper clipping.

Psychometry

Although we have an entire chapter about psychometry later in this book (see Chapter 16), since it is a psychical skill with widespread applications, we want to touch on this important mediumistic form here. Psychometry is the ability to read the energy imprints of objects that can act as springboards for the medium to connect with the spirits to whom the energy belongs. A medium might hold a set of keys, for example, and sense the energy of the person who once carried them. This can generate an energy message, so to speak, that travels into the universe like a beckoning wave. When the spirit responds, the medium can establish connection and communication.

Transfiguration

During transfiguration, the medium’s features take on the image of the spirit that is coming through. The spirit uses ectoplasm, a tangible substance created from the energy field that surrounds the spirit, to superimpose its image over the medium’s. Transfiguration typically occurs when spirit contact takes place in a circle (see Chapter 11).

Spirit Photography

Photographs that end up including spirits generally happen by accident, although some people do set out to take pictures of locations where they know spirits to be present. Unfortunately, photography is a medium (no pun intended) that is easy to manipulate, and spirit photography has lost much credibility as a result of fraud.

Premonition

With the increasing popularity of spirit photography in the 1920s came an increase in fraud. Anyone with a basic knowledge of film developing and printing techniques, a darkroom, and a little imagination could create amazing images—and even more so today when you consider digital photography and computer manipulation of images. The resulting lack of credibility causes spirit photography to fall out of favor as a legitimate means of representing spirit presence.

What You Can Expect During a Reading with a Medium

You’ve found a medium you trust, and you’re ready for some spirit contact. Now what? Well, odds are high that this is more than just a random adventure for you. Most people want to make contact with specific loved ones who have passed to the higher side. It might be feelings of loss, grief, love, worry, and even curiosity that drive your desire for communication. You might have some unfinished business with the person who passed—maybe you didn’t have a chance to say good-bye, or there were some uncertainties about feelings or actions on either side that were left hanging when the person passed. Perhaps you made a pact to communicate across the great divide, and you are now curious to find out what it’s really like on the other side.

Don’t worry about what the medium might think of your reasons for wanting to contact a loved one on the higher side. First of all, an experienced medium, like a good doctor, has seen and heard it all. Second, a professional medium isn’t really interested in making judgments about your interests and needs. A good medium simply wants to help you find whatever information and answers you are seeking, and present them to you for the highest good and in light.

Your reading should take place in an environment in which both you and the medium feel comfortable. If you are meeting with the medium in person, the surroundings should be inviting and make you feel welcome. If you are doing a reading by telephone, you should be somewhere free from distractions and you should have the sense that the same is the case for the medium. Before the reading begins, ask the medium what he or she expects from you. Can you talk to the medium during the reading? Can you ask questions of the spirits who come through? Consciously clear your mind of expectations and anticipation, and focus on being open and receptive to whatever happens. Sit in an open posture, with your legs and arms uncrossed. You can close your eyes or leave them open, whichever you prefer. Let the medium know when you are ready to start.

For the Highest Good and with Light

The medium should always begin the reading with a prayer or a blessing that asks for divine light and goodness to guide the communication. It is very important to establish your intent in this way; through spirit communication you are opening a doorway, but you don’t want just anyone to come through.

Evidence of the Continuity of Life

Validation is the most crucial aspect of spirit communication, and should be the first thing that takes place. You must know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the spirit the medium says is your father is indeed your father. The medium should present you with information that is undeniable—straight up, without having to ask you confirming questions along the way.

Often, as we’ve mentioned in earlier chapters, the first information to come through from a spirit is about his or her passing. It might be because this is the last earth plane memory the spirit has, or because it is the detail likely to be most vivid in your memory. Rita often experiences sensations in her body that correlate to the cause of death. The sensations are often vivid and mimic the physical ailment. She might feel a headache when someone passed from a stroke, central chest pain in the case of a heart attack, or a wider chest pain in the case lung disease.

The medium should have more to offer than, “I have a woman here who passed of a heart attack.” The medium should be able to give a description of the person, of certain physical or personality characteristics that at least hint at the person’s identity. When Rita did a reading for Debbie, she didn’t know anything about Debbie or her family members and friends who had passed. When Rita said, “I have a gentleman here who is showing at about 60 years, with salt and pepper hair brushed back and to the side in a soft part, with a full face and a broad nose,” Debbie immediately suspected this to be her father who had passed several years ago. When Rita said, “On the earth plane, he was quite set in his ways and didn’t like it when people disagreed with him—and neither did they!” Debbie was certain (and delighted) that this spirit visitor was indeed her father.

Silver Cord

Mediums certified in the Spiritualist Church are trained to identify a spirit totally so the person knows it can be no one else. Even among talented mediums, this skill requires a high level of consistency that typically takes a number of years to achieve.

The Message

Spirits do come through just to say “hi!” and to let you know that they are there and still in contact with you. They take as much delight in this contact as you do. But the spirits who make contact for extended communication typically have specific reasons for the contact and specific messages to convey. Messages might be directly from the spirit to you, or from a spirit serving as an intermediary.

Mediums and Messages

Rita had a man come to her for a spirit drawing. She described two spirits who came through, the man’s mother and uncle, and then did a spirit drawing of the uncle. When Rita showed him the spirit drawing, the man said, “Yes, that’s my uncle but I wanted my father!” So Rita went back to the spirit to see if the father would come through. He would not. Rita shared with the man what the spirits communicated: “Your father was a very shy man, while his brother, your uncle, always took center stage. So he came through first, and wanted to be drawn!” The man confirmed that in fact his father had been extremely shy.

Steering Clear of Fakes and Frauds

Times of struggle and challenge are opportunities for personal growth and insight. Sadly, they are also openings for the unscrupulous to become opportunistic. As with anything else in life, if it seems too good to be true then it probably isn’t either good or true. Put away those rose-tinted glasses … you need to see clearly when you reach out to the other side.

Fakes and frauds, we’re sorry to say, lurk wherever sorrow and sadness co-exist with the inability to “prove” anything and the potential for money to exchange hands. A fake is someone who pretends to make the desired contact, sometimes with the best of intentions (to help you feel better). A fraud is an intentional fake motivated by self-interest, which is almost always financial. These folks, sometimes well intentioned but often simply unscrupulous, are willing to offer you what you want because there’s something in it for them.

Misguided Intentions

The well-intentioned fake sincerely feels your pain and wants to make it go away. Such a person might enhance, or outright pretend to make, the contact you desire, leading you to experience what you (desperately) want to believe. This might be a person you know who has psychic abilities, a stranger you’ve gone to for help in making contact with a loved one who has passed on, or even a professional medium. This person doesn’t intend to hurt you in any way, and sees his or her actions as kind and good. And what you don’t know, after all, won’t hurt you if it’s in your best interests.

Who knows what’s in your best interests? Not this person! And you’re bound to find out at some point, either because you make a genuine connection at another time or because you eventually figure it out. In the end, the well-intentioned fake can cause even more pain than the outright fraud because you trusted this person.

Check, Please

The only intention the fraud has is to take your money. This person is nearly always a stranger to you, someone you’ve selected to help you contact the other side. Perhaps you came across this person’s business card somewhere, or you found the name in the phone book. The first question that this person asks you is your best clue whether he or she is legitimate. “How will you be paying for your services today?” is surely a tip-off about this person’s interests!

Tricks of the Trade

Frauds are so effective in their trade because it’s impossible to prove their actions. But there are some common tricks to put you on the alert. Your fraud warning alarm should go off if the medium …

• Discusses money before asking what you need. Yes, a good medium is worth the price he or she asks, and needs to discuss charges up front. But the medium’s first questions should be about your interests, needs, and expectations.

• Requires your credit card information or cash payment before doing a reading. Of course, payment should not depend on whether you like the reading. But you should receive the service before you’re expected to pay.

• Is on the other end of a psychic hotline. Yes, the advertising is tempting; you can call any time, and you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home. But what do you know about that voice on the other end of the line? It’s better to steer clear.

• Asks a lot of personal questions before beginning your reading. Those who are particularly adept make this questioning appear as though it is casual conversation, while the medium is actually fishing for the details that will become part of your “reading.”

• Promises connection with a specific spirit or loved one, or promises specific information or results. There is no way to guarantee anything with a reading.

• Makes specific predictions about your future. Your future is the outcome of the choices and decisions you make on your way, and it is ever-changing. Although there are likely signs that point to probable outcomes, we have two important words for you: free will. Nothing about your future is carved in stone.

Spiritology

Fishing is when the medium gives small bits of information and then asks questions to fill in the picture. It is generally the hallmark of someone who at best is inadequately trained and at worst is an outright fraud.

• Tells you to take specific actions. No medium has the knowledge to tell you what to do, or what events will result from your actions. This is your life, and only you can make the decisions that direct it.

Desperate Illusions

It is possible for you yourself to be the fake, so to speak. Not that you intentionally set out to delude yourself or others, of course. It’s just that sometimes you can want to hook up with that special someone on the other side so badly that you see signs of connection everywhere that aren’t genuine or aren’t really there.

This is where it’s particularly important to pay attention to authentication messages. What clues are you getting that suggest this is your brother or your mother or your best friend from college? The evidence of identity should be irrefutable, and it should be evidence that is not especially common. If it’s not, then the identity of the spirit contact remains uncertain. (Sorry.)

If you are desperate to make contact with someone specific, all that you know about that person is highlighted in your conscious thoughts as well as in parts of your memory that are just below the surface of your recall ability. A medium might pick up these psychical signals, misinterpret them as mediumistic signals, and convey them to you as messages from the higher side when they are in fact just a reflection of the signals your subconscious mind is sending out. The medium is in essence “reading” your mind. The energy that you are putting out there is so powerful that it creates images the medium can’t help but pick up. And it isn’t always possible for the medium to be aware of this happening. Only you can know.

Keep your mind as open as possible. You can make it more difficult for the medium to connect with spirit if you are sitting there concentrating on what it is that you want to have happen. That energy can block the communication.

Energy Healing

A special form of spirit contact is energy healing, which usually takes place in a circle or other group setting (more about circles in Chapter 11 and about healing in Chapter 18). In a healing, the medium calls on spirit physicians and chemists—spirit healers—to send healing energy through the medium, or healer, to the person in need.

While mediums can transfer healing energy, there are many people who are not mediums but who are healers. Some are even able to use spirit contact to diagnose or identify illness (more in Chapter 18). Spirit healing can be very powerful, and can relieve physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. People sometimes feel the effects immediately, or they feel them over a period of hours, or even days.

Spiritology

A healer is a person (who may or may not be a medium) who has the ability to receive healing energy from the higher side and direct it to people on the earth plane who are ill or injured physically, emotionally, or spiritually. In Spiritualism, a healer is always referred to as a healing medium.

The Least You Need to Know

• A medium’s qualifications should include a combination of education and experience.

• Interview a prospective medium as you would interview any professional whom you want to entrust with important information.

• Special forms of spirit communication, such as spirit painting, require unique talents in the mediums who use them.

• One of the first things that should happen in a reading is for the medium to convey clear and irrefutable evidence of the continuity of life and the identity of the spirit who is coming through.

• Never make a change in your life because a medium, or a spirit, tells you to. Carefully evaluate everything that comes to you through a reading before taking any action as a result.

Chapter 11

Tipping Tables and Blowing Horns: It Must Be a Séance!

In This Chapter

• The show-biz séances of days past

• Modern spirit circles

• Making sense of spirit signals

• What you can expect when you participate in a spirit circle

• There really are trumpet circles

Candlelit rooms and movielike effects certainly make for grand shows that can at once bedazzle and confound. But this is Hollywood’s version of a séance—an antiquated term that modern mediums no longer use.

When a group gathers to communicate with spirits, the event is a respectful circle inviting physical phenomena from present spirits. It takes a lot of practice and skill to accomplish this advanced level of mediumship. Circles are no Halloween tricks or party-game larks, but profound and powerful vehicles for sacred spirit contact.

Once Upon a Séance

The word séance is of French origin and means “to sit.” Although certain Taoist sects conducted séances—spiritual retreats at which sect leaders received divine counsel—as long ago as the third century, it was with the emergence of the Fox sisters and modern Spiritualism in the mid-1800s (see Chapter 3) that the term became synonymous with sitting in communication with spirits.

Through their history, séances have ranged from the subdued to the outrageous, from close-knit gatherings of people intent on making contact with loved ones to groups whose members shared only the desire to meet someone famous, or even notorious, from the other side. Some skeptics have made careers from debunking séances, and unfortunately they’ve not found a shortage of work. During their heyday in the early decades of the 1900s, séances were favorite events across the United States.

While many were authentic spirit communication experiences for participants, many were simply intended to amuse and amaze those in attendance. The inclination toward sensationalism made it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the valid from the contrived. Although the phenomena that occur at séances can be authentic spirit communication, the image of the séance is so closely connected with the perception that a séance is all about entertainment that mediums today shy away from the very term.

Mediums and Messages

Legend has it that before his death on October 31, 1926, famed magician Harry Houdini promised he would conduct the ultimate feat: He would escape death itself. Every year on Halloween, in locations around the world, “Houdini societies” conduct séances to attempt to contact the master of escapism. So far, none have succeeded.

Let the Show Begin!

The séances of the late 1880s often took place in a private home, sometimes following a dinner party. Guests seated themselves around a table, often in the parlor because this was a room that could be closed off, sitting close enough to hold hands. The medium sat among them. As the séance was to begin, the host dimmed the lights in the room. A hush fell over the gathering, and the medium instructed all the participants to take the hands of those sitting next to them, forming a chain of energy around the table.

“We call upon our spirit guests to come forward and to make their presence known,” the medium would intone. Those around the table watched each other and the room, eagerly anticipating the first arrivals. They were seldom disappointed. Shadows, flashes of light, bumps and raps, and moving objects (including the table) soon gave evidence of spirit presence.

When a trance medium presided, visiting spirits presented themselves through the medium’s body. The medium’s demeanor and voice often changed to reflect the spirit’s mannerisms. Someone in the group might call out, “Spirit that has joined us, identify yourself!” (In modern circles, participants just offer a greeting: “Good evening!”) Under the guidance of a materialist medium, such presence might even take the form of a human image with clothing and features clear to those in attendance.

Spiritology

A trance medium enters a state of altered consciousness that allows spirits to communicate through his or her body. A materialist medium receives spirit messages that manifest themselves in physical appearances, such as images visible to others who are present.

Some spirits cooperated nicely. One might be the departed mother of a person in attendance, another the brother of someone else. Some mediums had specific spirit guides that “took over” the séance, giving messages and teaching lessons. At other times, according to reports from the era, the summoned spirits were obstreperous, causing objects to fly about the room, mussing up hair and clothing, and creating a nuisance in general. Other spirits came and went without providing any clues as to their identity and the purpose of their visit, leaving guests to try and figure it out later.

This isn’t to say that all of this was just entertainment. There were many people who were making authentic contact, such as one-time skeptic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But those who used legitimate activities for fraudulent purposes grabbed media attention and public interest, which overwhelmed the genuine work that was going on. Physical mediums became leery of using physical mediumship except in small, private gatherings, causing public interest in spiritualism to diminish through the middle decades of the twentieth century.

Silver Cord

A rare and amazing kind of séance is the cabinet séance, in which the medium sits in a small cabinet. One at a time, spirits emerge from the cabinet, seemingly as tangible as the people in the room. They form these images using ectoplasm, an energy-based substance drawn from the cabinet medium. Few mediums have this extraordinary level of ability. Cabinet séances are amazing events to attend!

Phenomena or Fiction?

The phenomena manifested at many séances were authentic. Whenever people gather and focus their energy on making a connection between the earth plane and the spirit world, they are likely to succeed. Many séances conducted under the guidance of talented and capable mediums certainly made the kind of contact that provided proof of the continuity of life, bringing comfort and closure for those seeking it.

Unfortunately, the temptation to create a memorable experience (and perhaps personal fame and fortune) led a good many séance organizers to contrive the events that took place. Skeptical guests exposed numerous acts of fraud, from strings attached to objects that the medium tugged and moved to elaborately constructed platforms creating the illusion of levitation—the action of a physical object, sometimes a person, lifting into the air.

The séances that were fabrications and fictions made for great entertainment, as was really their intent, but at the same time discredited the séance as a legitimate venue for genuine spirit contact. Imagine the distress of believing that you’ve connected with the spirit of a loved one and then discovering it was all a setup! Such séances are not the efforts of those seeking the highest and the best; they are the manipulations of those driven by selfish motivations.

The Real Deal: Modern Circles

Gathering together for spirit communication can be a powerful and amazing experience. Modern circles present good opportunities for beginning mediums to use and refine their skills, and for those who want to experience spirit communication to do so in a sheltered, controlled setting. Often, there are several mediums participating in the circle, giving a range of experience and expertise.

Ideally, a modern circle gathers in a room that is used only for the purpose of holding circles, or at least remains unused for a few hours before the circle is held. This reduces interference from extraneous energy. A circle generally begins by clearing the room’s energy, which prepares the environment to be as receptive and supportive as possible.

Some circles prefer subdued lighting because it helps set a mood of relaxation and focus, while some sit in total darkness, and others meet in regular daylight. There is no reason to hold a circle in near or complete darkness; a room’s lighting is a matter of concern only for those of us on the earth plane, not for spirits. Like a one-on-one reading with a medium, a circle begins with a prayer to welcome the divine, to ask for openness and guidance, and to establish intent.

There are many kinds of circles—they can be either open or closed. Open circles welcome participants at a wide range of mediumistic abilities, from those who just want to experience a circle to those who are developing their skills as mediums. There is one medium who takes the lead, although several mediums might participate in spirit communication. Generally, the spirits who come through have connections to and messages for people in the circle, and a number of spirits make contact during the circle. These messages come through the mediums, and sometimes through participants who don’t realize that they have mediumistic abilities.

Spiritology

In an open circle, anyone can attend and there is a wide range of mediumistic ability. A closed circle is a group that meets regularly with the same members. The circle is closed because the members are working to build a constant group vibration that facilitates easier communication to spirit guides who are also working together from the higher side.

Those who are part of a closed circle are often mediums, and there is a high level of mediumistic ability in the circle. Mediums sometimes call these medium circles or working circles. The level of intensity is often higher because the level of mediumistic ability is higher, and spirit communication can take place along a broad continuum of methods—from clairsentience to transfiguration. Closed circles sometimes become teaching environments for spirit guides, who come through with generalized information rather than messages for specific participants.

Who Should Be in a Circle

Just about anyone can enjoy the experience of being in an open circle. To find a circle that you might join, contact a Spiritualist Church in your area or ask your metaphysical friends about circles they might know of or participate in. Many of the guidelines for finding a qualified medium that we recommend in Chapter 10 also apply to finding a legitimate circle.

It’s important to set aside any expectations or preconceived ideas about what will happen during a circle, and just be open and receptive. Typically, there is a lead medium for the circle who will talk with you before you attend, to be sure you understand how the circle functions and what is expected of you.

What happens in a circle is not secret, but it is private. Spirit communication is often intense and deeply personal. While you are free, of course, to share your own experiences with spirit contact, please respect the experiences of others in the circle as confidential.

What if a spirit contact comes through for you? Enjoy! Be open to the experience, and welcome the information from the communicator—the spirit that is bringing you the message. As we’ve said throughout this book, spirit communication is about goodness and healing. The energy of the circle shelters you, and you can feel safe within it. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, ask for help from the mediumistic leader.

Who Should Not Be in a Circle

Participants should come to the circle with positive energy and positive intent. There are people who believe they can use the circle and its psychical energy to control other people or to manipulate aspects of their own lives. They may try to use spiritual energy to control a relationship, for example, or to influence personal prosperity or fame. If you are not coming into a circle for the highest and best good, you can be certain your efforts will backfire. You can call it the law of cause and effect, the law of karma, or you get what you give. No matter what you call it, negative intent ultimately brings negative results.

Premonition

Because mental health affects perception, thought patterns, and behavior, mental illness interferes with a person’s ability to establish intent. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and addiction alter perception and make it unwise for a person who has any of these or other mental conditions to participate in a circle.

In an open circle, you can’t be sure of everyone’s intent despite the care and effort of the circle’s lead medium to screen participants. The very nature of an open circle—anyone can attend—makes this virtually impossible. This is yet another reason why it’s important to start the circle by asking for divine protection.

We Are Gathered Here Today …

So the big day is here and you’re going to your first circle! What should you wear, what should you expect, how should you act? The circle’s leader should have given you some guidelines about these things already. In general, you’ll get the most from your experience when you …

• Wear comfortable, clean clothing.

• Avoid perfumes and fragrances (which can be disturbing to others in the confines of a closed room as well as have an effect on a room’s energy).

• Leave your expectations or doubts at the door, and enter the circle with an open and receptive mind and spirit.

In most circles, you can ask questions and request information or a specific spirit contact, although there is no guarantee that you’ll get what you ask for.

Setting an Open and Positive Attitude

Of course you have your reasons for wanting to participate in a circle. No doubt there is at least one loved one who has passed whom you would like to contact. This is natural and good. Keep in mind, however, that the universe has its own intentions! There might be no contact that comes through for you, or what does come through might not be what you hoped for or expected. Nonetheless, it is the communication you are intended to experience. So get the most from it! If the circle permits you to ask questions, feel free to do so. You should feel comfortable with the others who are present, and confident that they will respect your privacy with regard to what information comes through, as you will respect theirs.

For the Highest Good: Establishing Intent

Establishing intent is not about deciding whom you want to contact and what information you want to receive. Rather, establishing intent is a process of opening yourself to whatever it is that a spirit wishes to communicate, and establishing that you desire your communications to take place for the highest good.

Inviting Spirit Presence

The lead medium typically invites, or invokes, spirit presence to join the circle through prayer or a formal greeting. This is called an invocation. Depending on the medium’s primary method of contact, this might happen within the medium or through external manifestations that are apparent to everyone in the circle. Others in the circle might also receive spirit contact, depending on their mediumistic abilities.

Identify Yourself, Please

The first responsibility of someone who is receiving spirit contact is to establish the spirit’s identity. An experienced medium does this before sharing the contact with the circle, so he or she is able to say, “I have a gentleman here who always wore a New York Mets baseball cap, who wants to tell Marie that she shouldn’t be angry with him for not saying good-bye before he passed because he’s still here with her, and she should celebrate her birthday next week with a lemon meringue pie from Martha’s Bakery.”

Now, if that message doesn’t convince Marie and everybody else in the circle of the continuity of life and the authenticity of spirit communication, nothing will! Of course, not all contact is that complete or specific. Sometimes, the details are very small, and you might not fully recognize the spirit until some time after the circle. Just as you are new to this, the spirits who want to contact you might be, too. It can take a little time to settle into a pattern that works for both of you.

Mediums and Messages

A common and fun exercise that mediums sometimes do in spirit circles is bending spoons. You hold a spoon by the bowl and rest one finger on the handle very lightly. You invite Spirit to come, and then let go of the thought. When Rita has done this exercise, the circle starts singing. Suddenly, you can feel the spoon moving, then watch the handle begin to bend. It is the energy of Spirit that causes this to happen, and Rita says the spoon really heats up in your hands! As an exercise, this proves that Spirit can come and work through us rather than just giving us answers. And, we suspect, it’s as much fun for spirits as it is for us!

Sometimes it takes a while to figure out who is coming through and why. Rita has taught art for many years. She had a student once who, 10 weeks into a 12-week course, had to leave for medical reasons. The young man had diabetes that was difficult to control, and as a result lost circulation to parts of his foot. He went into the hospital to have a toe amputated, and a few weeks later ended up having his leg amputated from the knee down. Rita sent cards to him and included him in her healing prayers over the course of a year or so, but eventually lost touch with him. A few years later, Rita heard that he had passed.

A number of years later, Rita was in a medium’s circle and one of the other mediums said to her, “I have a young man named Greg who is showing as an amputee, and he wants to say ‘thank you.’” Rita accepted the message but she was perplexed; she didn’t remember a young man named Greg or anyone with an amputated leg. A few weeks later, she was driving past a restaurant, one that had been a favorite of hers for quite a few years. She felt as though her head was “snapped” to look at the restaurant, and suddenly she remembered who Greg was! He had been the chef at the restaurant and the art student who lost his leg to diabetes. At the next medium’s circle, Rita gave thanks in return to Greg and to the medium who had brought his message through.

Recognizing and Interpreting Manifestations

Spirit contact can come through in an almost infinite variety of ways. The more people there are in the circle, in fact, the more variety there is! A spirit might choose to come through to someone other than the lead medium—even to you!

As we discussed in Chapter 10, at first these experiences might feel like your imagination has gone into overdrive. This is normal, and others in the circle will give you support and encouragement. Just let the experience unfold; there will be plenty of time afterward to analyze and understand it.

Common manifestations of spirit contact include the following:

• Hearing words or phrases, often in your head rather than out loud

• Seeing flashes of a person’s face, clothing, or other characteristics

• Images or references to certain colors, numbers, or symbols

• Flashes of scenarios that appear like memories

If you have any of these experiences, share them with the circle even if they seem to have little context. Messages from the higher side aren’t always presented in ways that make logical sense to us. Even if the messages are for you, it might take input from others in the circle for the messages to make sense to you. And if the messages are not for you, you want to get them out there so they reach the right person.

In Goodness and in Healing

When Rita holds circles, she views every circle (and every spirit contact) as a request for healing—emotional, physical, spiritual. Her opening prayers always ask that healing love and light surround the circle. She asks infinite spirit God to send the spirit guides and loved ones of all who are present to come close, and that the people participating in the circle are open to receive.

Those on the receiving end of healing energy have experiences that range from feeling very calm to feeling better, either immediately or after some time has passed. Spirit energy cannot, and is not meant to, make everything better; it is always simply for the highest and the best. Why do we have to suffer? Why do we suffer? We don’t know! There are spiritual lessons in illness, and many things that we don’t understand. We are sometimes volunteers for people around us to learn their lessons. We don’t always know the divine purpose of a particular situation; it is beyond our capacity to have such knowledge.

Through prayer, meditation, and spirit communication we can ask for, and receive, help. Although we don’t have to be hurt to learn, it seems that most of the time we humans don’t want to learn and we get stuck in our egos, and it takes a hurt of some kind to kick us into action. Look at how many times people get stuck in dysfunctional relationships but won’t leave, or do destructive things to themselves but won’t stop. Sometimes we do things to ourselves that amount to slow suicide. If you can change your life, if you can do what you need to do, your life will change. Spirit energy can help you gain the insights you need to make changes. This is what spirit healing is all about—physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Mediums and Messages

Table tipping is a form of spirit communication in which spirit energy comes through your hands and causes a special three-legged table to tip on its legs, or even move across the room with your hands very lightly on it. Usually, two people have their hands together on the table. One asks a question, and the table taps the response—either yes or no, or a sequence of taps that stop at letters of the alphabet. Sometimes the table can really get moving, almost like it’s walking up steps. Although table tipping is fun and people enjoy it, it can be a long, tedious way to get answers!

Let the Trumpet Blow!

Reality can sometimes be stranger than fiction. There truly are “trumpet circles.” These unique events represent a high level of development in the medium, and they concentrate spirit energy in special ways. In fact, it is likely that this “real deal” became the model for the frauds who became so popular for their show-biz séances. A trumpet circle is an amazing experience.

In a trumpet circle, a special, long metal horn is placed in the center of the circle. The room is made totally dark, and those in the circle concentrate on welcoming spirit energy. If a spirit accepts the invitation, the trumpet then rises and becomes the mouthpiece for the spirit. In audio recordings of trumpet circles, you can clearly hear different voices coming through the trumpet. Although Rita has been to several trumpet circles, she has not yet experienced the trumpet rising. Several of her teachers have, however, and found the experience remarkable.

The Least You Need to Know

• The infamous séances of the late 1800s and early 1900s were often more entertainment than genuine spirit communication, and typically produced sensational effects.

• Today’s spirit circles are usually valid, genuine settings in which spirit contact is authentic.

• There are many kinds of modern circles that are either open or closed. Open circles generally welcome anyone to participate.

• It is important to maintain an open mind and spirit when attending a circle.

• If anything makes you uncomfortable in a circle, ask for help from the circle’s mediumistic leader.

• Sometimes, the messages conveyed to you during a spirit circle don’t become clear until later, when you have a chance to think about them and connect them to events and people in your life.

Chapter 12

Uncovering the Medium Within

In This Chapter

• Discovering your psychical abilities: a directed communication exercise

• Learning how to focus

• Refining and developing your mediumistic skills

• Using your mediumistic skills for the highest good

Most people (and you are probably among them) have had some kind of contact with the spirit world, from just the sense that someone is present to direct messages and advice from loved ones who have passed to the higher side. Perhaps you want to make contact for yourself, or to use your mediumistic abilities to make contact for others.

Mediumistic skills are like any other skills: You start with a basic or inherent ability (that everyone has to some degree), and through education and experience you develop and refine that ability into a reliable, consistent set of skills. With practice and guidance, you can learn to communicate with the spirit world. Whether you want to contact someone you know in spirit or someone who simply knows more than you do, like a spirit guide, there are many techniques that just about anyone can learn.

So You Wanna Be a Medium!

While everyone has the ability to connect with those in the spirit world, some people are more open to such connections than others, and are more aware of the connections that take place. As an element of the universe, you are already linked to its energy—you’re already plugged in!

Developing and refining your mediumistic skills will lead to experiences that are amazing, amusing, entertaining, and profound. You will certainly experience growth in your personal life, and will also help others to grow in their lives and understanding. Even if you choose not to develop your own mediumistic abilities, becoming aware of them will let you become more receptive to spirit communication through others.

Your Innate Psychical Talents

You’ve no doubt noticed that we use both the term “psychic” and “psychical” throughout this book. (And no, the latter is not a misspelling of “physical”!) While they are interchangeable on a certain level, they actually define a somewhat different set of skills. Psychic skills are those abilities that you use to communicate in unspoken ways with other people on the earth plane. A psychic (someone who is using psychic skills) reads from earth energy; he or she reads the vibrations of what is going on here on earth.

Spiritology

Psychic skills are those through which unspoken communication takes place between people on the earth plane. Psychical skills are those through which communication takes place between people on the earth plane and entities in the spirit world.

Psychical skills are those abilities that you use to communicate across the earth/spirit divide. The skills are similar to those that a psychic uses—remember, all mediums are psychics (although not all psychics are mediums; more on this later). A medium (someone who is using psychical skills) communicates with deceased beings through his or her own sensitivities.

Freeing the Medium Within

Becoming a medium is more often than not a process of being the medium you already are! As a child, you were likely in touch with your spirit far more intimately than you are now as an adult. Part of what we view as “growing up” is learning to suppress this spontaneous and unconstrained piece of ourselves. Reconnecting with this piece is just a matter of allowing it back into our lives.

An Exercise to Activate Your Mediumistic Abilities

What are your mediumistic abilities? This directed communication exercise can help you identify and activate your psychical skills. Read through these steps until they are familiar enough that you can follow them without reading through each one.

1. Make yourself comfortable in a location where you won’t have any distractions or interruptions.

2. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let the first breath clear your body, let the second breath open your mind, and let the third breath free your spirit.

3. Consciously form the thought: “This is my time to be one with God and for God to be one with me.” (God, of course, being the divine of your belief system or choice.) Set an intent to explore a spirit contact using all of your psychical senses.

4. Envision yourself sitting on a bench in an open, beautiful garden. There are flowers and trees, and the air smells fresh and clean. It is peaceful and calm, and you are open to receive whatever spirit visitor arrives.

5. As your spirit visitor approaches, notice but do not attempt to control the psychical sense that is first activated. Do you hear a voice or a sound? Do you see an image? Do you “sense” a presence?

6. Welcome your spirit guest, and communicate to him or her using the psychical sense that feels most natural. Make a note in your conscious mind of which sense this is, but don’t let your consciousness intervene with its use.

7. Push this psychical sense to use it to the fullest capacity you are capable of at this point. If you begin to feel frustrated, you are pushing too hard and your conscious mind is becoming involved. Back off until you feel comfortable again.

8. Now choose a different psychical sense. If your initial sense was clairaudience, choose clairvoyance. Concentrate on perceiving visual images using your inner vision. Acknowledge, but don’t shift your focus to, these images. If they are just fragments, that’s okay. Sometimes images come in bits and pieces (the term mediums use to express the fragmented way in which information sometimes comes to them, especially beginning mediums). They will become clearer. Let the images take shape and form.

9. When you begin to feel complete with the messages, gently release the concentration you are using to activate these psychical senses. Return to the sense that was first activated, and use this sense to communicate thank you and good-bye to the spirit who came through.

10. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel yourself back in your body, become conscious of your breathing. Wiggle your fingers and your toes, and when you are ready, open your eyes.

When you feel ready to do so after completing the exercise, write down your experiences.

1. Which psychical sense was first activated? What was your initial experience of it?

2. Whom did you meet? What sense of identity did this psychical sense provide about your spirit visitor?

3. How did you experience this psychical sense?

4. What was the second psychical sense that you attempted to activate, and what was your initial experience of it? What added information did you get about your spirit visitor?

5. What happened with the initial psychical sense as you brought this second psychical sense into play?

6. What interactions did you have with your spirit visitor through your psychical senses?

As your mediumistic skills develop, use variations on this exercise to further explore your psychical senses. You might find that your abilities include advanced skills such as automatic writing and drawing spirit-inspired images.

Learning Focus

The most challenging aspect of using your mediumistic abilities is learning to focus them. Think of this like entering a room crowded with people who are talking, laughing, eating, drinking, and even dancing to the music that plays in the background. A cacophony of “input,” to use a term from our computer-driven culture, assaults your senses. Yet within seconds, you locate the friends you are to join, and make your way to them. How are you able to do this?

Focus. All of your senses align toward identifying and locating your friends. Your eyes scan the room for images of clothing and other physical characteristics. Your ears tune in to frequencies of sound that are closest to what you know signals their voices. Your sense of smell seeks the fragrances your friends typically wear. You search for other details that narrow the scope of your quest to find your friends—foods, drinks, or dance moves. All of this transpires without much conscious participation from your mind, of course, and in fractions of time barely measurable. Then click! You’re locked in on your target, and in moments you’re sharing in the revelry with your friends.

Learning to focus your mediumistic skills is very similar to singling out individuals in a crowded room. In fact, you undoubtedly used some of these skills—your psychical abilities—in locating your friends at a party. (One way to further develop these abilities is to consciously concentrate on using them in such ways; but more on that later!) With practice, you become both skilled and comfortable using your core psychical skills—clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience—to receive mediumistic messages.

Mediums and Messages

One evening in Rita’s circle a student came to her describing a young man dancing with a top hat and cane. He was tall and handsome with brown hair, and was quite the character. Rita could immediately identify him as her friend Tom, a choreographer who danced with a top hat and cane many times, and who danced with Rita at parties. He came through with a message that Rita needed to do more dancing and not work so hard, which is definitely something Tom would’ve said to Rita here on the earth plane.

Filtering Signals

When you search for someone in a crowd, you simultaneously receive and reject signals. Looking for a male friend? Automatically your focus shifts … men in, women out. Short? You glance right past those who stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Always in vogue when it comes to attire? Your attention migrates to those wearing the latest styles—and overlooks those who are not. Drinks Pepsi … or nothing? Loves those little cocktail wienies? Laugh sounds like a cross between a choking lion and a giggling little girl? You filter all of these signals and countless others, consciously and subconsciously.

When receiving spirit signals, the filtering process is sometimes more challenging (particularly when you are just beginning to develop your mediumistic skills) because the signals are less tangible to your conscious mind. You might think you heard a voice or saw an image. Did you really? Or was it just your imagination? This kind of conscious questioning is actually a sign of progress in your development. As we said earlier, spirit communication feels like imagination at the beginning!

Intent and Limits

Mediumistic signals sometimes come to you unbidden. Rather than you attempting to invoke spirit connection, a spirit comes to you and wishes to make contact. The spirit might desire to convey a message to you or to someone else. As we discussed in Chapter 9, it’s important for you to establish intent and set limits. Otherwise, you’ll feel like a giant antenna, picking up lots of static but not getting any clear channels!

Establishing intent makes it clear that you always desire spirit communication for the highest good and with light. Whether you initiate contact or spirits contact you, take time to consciously establish intent. Setting limits reminds visitors from the boundary-less spirit world that your world has structure and constraints, and that you can’t always be available when spirits want you to be.

We Worked So Hard, December 1989, oil on canvas. Rita often works with troubled inner-city youths and one young man seemed to attach himself to her. Not an easy person to counsel, Rita decided to ask in meditation, “Who dropped this boy into my lap?” A man showed himself to Rita and told her he had been a migrant tobacco farmer. When Rita showed the boy this painting, he told her that his family had been tobacco farmers and that he thought he recognized the man it portrayed. Rita feels this spirit guided her to work with these youths.

This is a good opportunity to call on your spirit guides for assistance. Use the “Meet Your Spirit Guides” guided communication exercise in Chapter 7 to ask for communication with your spirit guide. Then ask your spirit guide to help you maintain the limits you wish to set. Rita has established with her spirit guides, for example, that she does not want spirit contact to disturb her sleep unless absolutely necessary—the sleep state is a favorite time for spirits to attempt contact because your mind is very receptive. Instead, she makes herself available for spirit communication during her waking hours. She does permit spirit messages to come to her in the dream state, which is okay because it doesn’t wake her up.

Your Circle of Safety

The best place to practice your mediumistic skills is in a circle. There is strength in numbers, as the cliché goes, and the others in the circle can help and guide you as you are learning. They also learn from you, even though you might feel that as a novice you have little to offer them. You might find one circle and stay with it for a long time as participants grow together in their mediumistic skills and maintain a group vibration that those in spirit will come to recognize, or you might participate in several circles that have different members.

Check with the Spiritualist Churches and metaphysical groups in your area to find out what opportunities there are for learning mediumship. Appendix B also provides some general resources to get you started.

Premonition

Beware the scams and the unsophisticated! Some people recognize that they have mediumistic abilities, but don’t work to develop them before using them for financial gain. This leaves them—and you—open to random spirit contact that may or may not be beneficial. As much as we’d like to believe that everyone offering mediumistic services is doing so for the highest good, the sad reality is that this is not the case. Always check references and qualifications. If you have any doubts, go somewhere else.

If you are not able to find an organized mediumistic circle, consider forming one of your own. You might be surprised and delighted with how many people (many of whom are likely already among your circle of friends and acquaintances) are interested in, or already have some level of participation with, mediumistic abilities and spirit communication. Where there is one, there are usually many—it’s just a matter of finding each other. (Chapter 11 offers advice and suggestions for choosing circles and circle participants.)

Developing Your Psychical and Mediumistic Skills

Realizing that you have mediumistic abilities is often exhilarating—like recognizing that you can sing, paint or dance when you’ve always wanted to do those things but thought they were beyond your reach. You are opening yourself to a whole new world—literally and figuratively. But after the novelty of discovery wears off, what’s next? You want to learn more, of course, and to explore your talents and see where they lead you.

Is this a calling to a career change? You might indeed decide that you want to be a professional medium. But that’s really a very personal decision that requires you to consider all aspects of your life. Regardless of how far you think you might want to take your development as a medium, start with the basics.

To some extent, your learning curve as a medium begins with the abilities that seem most prominent. Do you experience voices and sounds? Your predominant psychical ability might be clairaudience, and is a good place for you to start your development process. As is the case with your physical senses, your psychical senses are intertwined. (Do you taste or smell that freshly baked cinnamon roll?) As you develop one, you’ll discover and develop others.

Medium or Psychic?

You probably already use your psychic abilities in your communications among friends and family here on the earth plane. You pick up the telephone right before it rings, and it’s your sister calling. You impulsively turn left instead of right, and find a parking space. You stop by to see a friend, just in time to see him before he dashes off on an unexpected business trip.

Take these abilities to the next level, to communicate with spirit entities on the higher side, and now you’re talking medium!

Finding a Mentor

As with any other skill that you want to develop, finding a mentor who can guide and assist you is a great boost. You can learn from your mentor’s experience and expertise as well as from your own experiences and any courses that you are taking. You might even think of this as an apprenticeship of sorts. It might be a teacher from your mediumship courses who becomes your mentor, or another medium that you meet through a circle.

Seek a mentor whose skills are significantly more advanced than yours, someone who is a leader of sorts in the spiritual or metaphysical community. Look for someone whose abilities and integrity you respect and trust, and ask if he or she is willing to mentor you. Because learning and teaching are so intimately integrated, those who want to learn are often also eager to teach.

Silver Cord

The difference between teaching and learning is subtle but important. Teaching is what comes to you via another; learning is what you do with that information after you receive it. The greater part of developing any skill is learning.

Honing Your Skills: The Cycle of Learning

Practice makes perfect, no matter what you’re doing. (Well, maybe not perfect, but certainly better!) The more you use your mediumistic abilities, the more competent you will become. Even when you reach the point of producing consistent results, practice leads to continuing improvement. Like playing the piano or riding a bicycle, you meet new challenges, reach new heights of achievement, and rest on plateaus of proficiency until it’s time to repeat the cycle of learning. And in time, your skills become second nature, simply part of what defines you and how you function in your life.

Should You Go to School?

The short answer is, of course! If you want to learn more about anything, the most logical route is to go to school or take some classes. If there is a Spiritualist Church in your area, that is a good place to start. Spiritualist Churches offer instruction and classes in mediumship. They can also refer you to legitimate, qualified programs that offer more extensive study, if this interests you. One such program is the Spiritualist Course of Study for Mediumship, part of the Morris Pratt Institute’s Course of Study for Spiritualism. (See Appendix B for more information about MPI and other educational resources for mediums.)

Local universities and colleges, community colleges, and other educational institutions sometimes offer what they might call “extended learning” programs. (Sometimes these are called “life experience” or “adult continuing education” programs.) These are courses, generally not for college credit and often taught when regular credit classes are not in session, conducted by local experts. Such programs run the gamut from computer skills to tarot reading. You might find a course in psychic abilities, or even mediumship.

As with most learning experiences, the value of such courses depends on the expertise of the teacher. Always check the credentials of both the program and the teacher! Talk with the teacher before enrolling in the class, and ask about his or her training, experience, and orientation. Is he or she a Spiritualist? Or just a fan of the Ouija board? Does he or she view spirit communication as learning and healing, or just see it as entertainment? What if educational opportunities are in short supply in your area? Some programs offer distance learning courses (also called correspondence courses). A key benefit with such courses is that you can learn at your own pace, and within the constraints of other demands placed on your life and your schedule. Not everyone can drop everything to go to school, or even squeeze enough time from a busy day to take night classes!

Premonition

There are no universal accreditation procedures for courses and programs that teach mediumship, so choosing one is indeed a process of “buyer beware.” The best way to find a reputable program is to ask sources you trust, such as mediums you might know or organizations that you know to be reliable.

The disadvantage of distance learning programs, of course, is that you’re pretty much on your own. There’s no opportunity for structured practice because you won’t have an instructor working with you to help you receive and give messages. If you’re considering a distance learning program, make sure you have adequate access to a medium. Lessons should be structured and detailed, and should include specific advice for addressing various scenarios that might arise during a spirit communication experience.

Realistic Expectations

We talk a lot about establishing intent, and always try to make clear that this means asking for divine light to guide spirit communication for the highest good and for the greatest healing or learning. A piece of this inevitably becomes, “So what do you want to accomplish with this communication?”

At times, you might desire contact with a specific spirit entity—your mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, or friend who has passed to the other side. Often, this spirit is willing to oblige, and responds to the energy signals that you send out. This is always gratifying and comforting; it reestablishes your sense of the continuity of life in very direct and obvious ways.

But spirits aren’t always willing or able to respond when we want to call on them. Spirits are active and learning on the higher side, too! Spirits have free will, too. It’s important to remain open to the spirits and to messages that do come through, even when they don’t appear to be what you want. There is a grander scheme to the universe than we, as physical beings, are capable of understanding, and we often simply need to accept that.

Your Expectations for Yourself

If you are using your mediumistic abilities to communicate with spirits for yourself, remain open to whatever the experience turns out to be. The questions that you have, and the contacts that you desire, might not be the matters that are relevant in a particular communication, or even in general. Always keep as your conscious intent that spirit communication is for the highest good. Be still, and just let the information come through. You’ll have plenty of time afterward to think and analyze.

Ask questions of your spirit connections if you are unclear about a message, but realize that the meaning of the message might not become clear to you until quite some time later. A message that appears enigmatic might be just a piece of a much larger message that will come to you over multiple spirit connections, or that contains information you aren’t ready to receive yet. Be patient; the meaning will come!

Expectations When Using Your Abilities for Others

When you use your mediumistic abilities on behalf of other people, remember that you are just the messenger. It is not your role to interpret the messages that you receive, or to judge them (although certainly your consciousness filters them; more on this in Chapter 13). Let the images and concepts come through. Always remember that you are in charge; deliver them responsibly.

Sometimes, information comes in bits and pieces. If you are patient, the fragments will take shape and make sense to the sitter who is receiving them.

Lessons and Healing

Your mediumistic abilities are a great gift, and with them comes the responsibility to use them wisely and always for the greatest good (we keep emphasizing this because it is such an essential point). Indeed, spirit contact can be, and often is, joyous and fun. Not many of us would be drawn to it if it wasn’t! Spirit communication can bring much insight, understanding, comfort, and delight into your life. In the end, it’s all about you!

Handling Challenges

Messages that come through spirits are sometimes unexpected or intense, and can surface issues that you need to confront, address, and resolve. If your intent is pure (meaning that you’ve established that this spirit communication is for the highest good), tremendous healing and learning will come as a result.

Silver Cord

Many mediums, like Rita, are trained in psychology, ministry, or related fields. This gives them the ability to provide more “earthly” guidance in response to the effects messages have for the people receiving them.

When these messages are for you, take time afterward to sort through your emotions and thoughts. Keep a journal about your experience, if this helps you. Talk with a friend who understands. Talk with a medium, if you know one whom you trust. And if the issues that arise feel overwhelming, seek professional help from a therapist. It doesn’t matter what initiates the process of healing; what counts is that you follow through so that healing can take place.

Using Your Abilities to Help Others

There is great receiving in giving. It can be tremendously satisfying to use your abilities and skills to help others, and to bring messages of comfort and love from loved ones who have passed. Imagine what our world could be like if we all used our talents, mediumistic and otherwise, to help and nurture each other!

The Least You Need to Know

• Everyone has some level of mediumistic ability.

• Developing your mediumistic skills requires a combination of education and practice.

• Your psychical senses connect you to the spirit world in the same way that your psychic senses connect you to others on the earth plane.

• You can use your mediumistic abilities to help yourself and to help others.

Chapter 13

Understanding the Message

In This Chapter

• The symbolism of spirit communication

• The affirmation of detail

• The emotions that spirit messages can evoke

• Whether spirit communication should change your life

Spirit communication brings you messages that you need to know—some that you’ve always wanted to know, and some that you didn’t realize you wanted to know. Sometimes the meanings are obvious. “I get it!” you exclaim.

Other times the meanings are obscure, even enigmatic. They can be like puzzles for you to solve to reveal the pictures they present, or like the children’s games in which you move squares around in slots, horizontally and vertically within a frame, until you get them all into just the right position and then a recognizable scene or image emerges. To make sense of spirit messages, you have to “get” the picture, even when it comes to you in fragments.

Interpreting Information

Spirit communication can be like going to a therapist … only more. It can be like an all-night, depths-of-your-souls conversation with a best friend … only deeper. It can be like waking from a dream and knowing exactly what its symbolism means … or knowing the dream was important but not being able to figure out its meaning.

Often, your spirit contacts will be with those you knew on the earth plane who have passed to the higher side. They are familiar to you, and this familiarity makes you more receptive to communication from them. Just keep in mind that people don’t change that much just because they pass to the higher side! If someone was, shall we say, less than brilliant in his or her earth plane existence, don’t expect to receive great insights from this spirit on the higher side to rival the thinking of Elizabeth Tudor or Albert Einstein. If Uncle Fred couldn’t keep track of his money during his life on the earth plane, he’s not going to become a Rockefeller on the higher side. But Uncle Fred might have other insights and knowledge to share with you—and you may just find the information he gives you astonishing and profound.

My Filters or Yours?

Interpretation of spirit communication starts, of course, with the medium who is receiving the messages. It is through his or her filters—belief system, level of development as a medium, other talents and knowledge—that spirit messages must pass first. On the one hand, this is a clear limitation: You can only receive information that is within the scope of the medium’s background and knowledge to deliver. On the other hand, however, this is a benefit in that it focuses the information in ways that make sense to the medium and to you.

Silver Cord

Modern Spiritualism holds that the psychosocial aspects of the medium attract spirits who are at the same level, to convey messages that are within the medium’s scope to understand and communicate. At a church service, Rita was doing message work and had come through a rather stiff-standing older gentleman who, in his physical existence, had been quite critical and conservative. He always stood in a military stance and didn’t have a supportive word to say to anyone. Everything had to be proven to him; he redefined the word skeptic. In this service, the man was coming through for his nephew, a young man in the congregation who was a developing healer. The uncle described a location in the young man’s backyard where the young man was establishing his healing work, and then said to his nephew, “Well done!”

The image the uncle described was of the healing light coming into the place where the young man, a dowser, did much of his healing work. The experience was particularly moving because such healing would have been totally foreign to the uncle in his physical life, as would have any praise or recognition.

Spiritology

A dowser is someone who uses divining rods or a pendulum to search for water or to check energy fields. In healing, dowsing is also used to balance the chakras (bodily energy centers).

Like a Dream

In many respects, making sense of spirit messages is like interpreting dreams. Spirit messages are often very symbolic; symbolism is one of the most primal and at the same time most powerful means of communication. Symbolism transcends the boundaries (such as language, culture, and belief systems) that divide people on the earth plane as well as the barriers between the earth plane and the spirit plane.

Each medium has a structure of symbols that spirits use in communication through that medium. Gold might represent riches and wealth in the symbolism dictionary of one medium, while for another it represents opportunities as yet unfolded. A good medium knows his or her symbols, and can present to you its meaning rather than the symbol itself. Always evaluate and assess the information you receive within the context of your life and its realities. Sometimes you need to reinterpret the message from the medium so that it fits your life.

If you are receiving spirit communication directly, just let the information come to you rather than try to interpret it as it’s coming through. Remember that sometimes spirits struggle, too, to make sense when they communicate! The limitations of the earth plane can cause a spirit to fumble for just the right images and presentations. Once spirits find the best bridge of communication that links to you, messages can have astounding clarity.

As you explore and develop your own mediumistic abilities and psychical skills, it’s a good idea to keep a journal of the symbols that appear to you consistently. They might include certain sounds, smells, or sights. Or they might include numbers, words, colors, or objects. Write down the symbol, and then a brief description of its context. Over time, this will become your personal dictionary of symbols.

It’s in the Details

As we say throughout this book, it’s the details that make the difference. It’s easy enough for a medium (or a spirit contact) to say, “Your father liked to watch football on Sunday afternoons.” Not much of a stretch to make that fit many people’s lives! But it’s another thing entirely to say, “Your dad loved those Green Bay Packers! He never missed a home game at Lambeau Field, and God help anybody who moved his ‘cheesehead’ from the rabbit ears antenna when the away game was on television!”

Jim is a member of the Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism where Rita worked on a recent Medium’s Day. Jim wanted a spirit drawing done for his mother, Cleo, but he did not reveal this to Rita at the time, so as not to influence the spirit connection. Cleo’s father appeared on the paper, and Jim recognized him instantly. As Rita drew, her spirit guides showed Rita her own Uncle Tom’s hairstyle so Rita would know exactly how to render Jim’s grandfather’s hair in the picture. Spirit guides sometimes trigger information accessible to mediums, to stimulate what needs to be given out. Rita always felt this drawing couldn’t have been more exact if Jim’s grandfather had been posing for a portrait while here on the earth plane.

It is the details that give our lives meaning, and it is the details that provide evidence of the continuity of life beyond physical existence. It is the details that prove, beyond a doubt, that you are communicating with Uncle Jordan or Aunt Ruth or your cousin Stephen who drowned when he fell through an air pocket in the ice on Lake Michigan. And it is the details that let you know that these are valid experiences, these are authentic messages, and these are feelings you can trust as true.

Digging Deeper

Sometimes the message comes through loud and clear, but you can’t recognize the spirit communicator. It might be someone in your distant family, or it might not be whom you expected. Dig a little to find out how this message is relevant to you!

Early in her spirit communication experiences, Rita was sitting in a circle with a British medium who did not know her or anything about her. He said to Rita, “I have an uncle here for you, his name is Yekah.”

The medium gave a lot of detailed information about this uncle, but it wasn’t anyone Rita recognized. Because many members of her mother’s family had not come to this country, Rita called her mother to see who this spirit visitor might have been. She started by asking her mother to name her brothers.

“There’s Morris and Mosha,” her mother said, and then asked Rita, “What are you trying to find out?”

Rita told her mother of the experience with the medium, and gave the information that the medium had provided. “Yes, Uncle Yekah. He was my uncle!” Rita’s mother said.

Even though it took some research to understand the message, it was a message that had great meaning for Rita on multiple levels. It gave her information about her life, and it absolutely affirmed the continuity of life. The only way this medium could’ve received this information was through spirit, as Rita hadn’t even known this uncle existed.

When the Message Is for You to Deliver

Sometimes during your reading with a medium, a message will come through for you to deliver to someone else. This is usually because you are willing to listen and are open to the communication, while the intended recipient is not. Many times, it is to say “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault,” to make amends, and sometimes just to say “I love you.”

A woman in Rita’s congregation was sitting with a medium when a message came through for a childhood friend, Martin. It was from a mutual friend, Carl, who had committed suicide after being arrested for drinking in public. Carl went to jail, while Martin ran away and escaped arrest. Carl hung himself in jail, and Martin had carried the burden of guilt ever since, over not being there to prevent it.

The message was from Carl to Martin, telling Martin it wasn’t his fault. Carl had been depressed for a long time, and had committed suicide because of his depression, not because he’d been arrested or because of any sense that Martin had abandoned him. “It’s not your fault,” Carl wanted to say to Martin. He chose their mutual friend for expressing this, because she was open to the communication and Martin would accept the message coming from her.

Transforming Negative Energy

Sometimes messages that come through from the spirit world seem confused, unhappy, or even dark. Remember, though, that we want all spirit communication to come to us for the highest good. Messages might be painful because they stir old resentments and hurts. But this is the path to healing such wounds, for you and probably for the spirit bringing the messages to you.

Mediums and Messages

Spirits sometimes come through to make amends for negative energy that they spread in their physical lives. During message work in a church, Rita had a gentleman come through who was heavyset and scant of hair, and who made it clear that in his physical life he had been an angry and argumentative personality. He never had a kind word for anybody, and often left people in tears. He was coming through at this church service to say to those people in the congregation that day, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so hurtful.”

Rita had a man come to her for a reading, hoping to find guidance from the higher side. His mother was getting ready to pass, and he and his brother were having heated arguments about how to handle all of the arrangements. It was his grandmother who came through, a kind and gentle woman. She wanted to communicate directly to her grandson, and she said, “You have many good and right things to say, but you need to learn how to present yourself differently, so people will listen and take you seriously.”

Emotionally Powerful Messages

Many messages that come through spirit communication are deeply emotional. They are messages that convey apology, forgiveness, comfort, and most importantly, love. They touch us in the deepest cores of our beings, sometimes uncovering both pain and joy we didn’t know were there. This is one way we know that these messages are authentic. They’re so personal that there’s no way anyone could fake them!

But once stirred, these emotions are powerful and intense, and can make you feel quite unsettled until you are able come to grips with them (especially if you are one who keeps your emotions to yourself). Deeply emotional experiences on the earth plane tend to be clearly defined by time: a wedding, a funeral, a birth of a child. Deeply emotional experiences activated from the spirit plane often extend across conventional borders of time and place, touching many dimensions of your life simultaneously. It can be overwhelming to feel such intensity.

If you are planning a reading with a medium, schedule it for a time when you will be able to deal with the emotions that might arise. Try not to do it on your lunch break from work, if possible! Although the intensity of your feelings might startle you, it’s perfectly normal. And it’s what allows healing to begin.

After a reading (or any spirit contact), take some time for yourself, to think about the messages you received and begin to understand their meanings. You might want to:

• Take a long walk or go for a bicycle ride. Physical activity occupies your body, and being in nature connects you with a reality that is larger than yourself. This frees your mind to explore the new information it’s received.

• Write in your journal. This activity takes you intentionally within yourself, giving focus to contemplation and understanding (see the journaling exercise in the next section).

• Talk with a trusted friend. Someone who knows you well can help you connect seemingly disparate messages to situations and experiences in your life. Within the context of love and kindness, this friend can gently show you things about yourself that you can’t see.

• Explore and resolve intense emotions, such as anger and hurt, through counseling or psychotherapy. A mental health professional can help you accept past hurts and use them to strengthen and shape your life as it moves forward.

Premonition

Don’t fall into the trap of going to a medium to have someone else make your hard decisions. A good medium (an experienced and ethical medium) will not tell you what to do but instead will present you with information to help you choose appropriately. Never make changes just because a medium tells you to or gives you information that tells you to do so. Spirit communication is for you to learn, not for you to avoid responsibility for your life and your decisions! Spiritualists stress personal responsibility.

A Journaling Exercise

Keeping a journal is a good way to explore your experiences and feelings about spirit communications. It’s just for you, so you don’t have to worry about spelling or grammar or any of that. Writing with a pen or a pencil on paper causes you to use different parts of your brain than other forms of communication do, which helps you see things from a different perspective. The following exercise lets you explore a message you might have received from a spirit contact:

1. Find a comfortable, quiet place where you can write in your journal without interruption. Put on music and light candles if you like.

2. Write with a pen or pencil on paper.

3. First, write down the message that you received. Write it in as much detail as you can recall.

4. Next, write about how it felt to receive the message. How did you respond or react? What feelings did you experience? How old did the message make you feel?

5. Write some memories of times in your life when the information of this message would have been helpful.

6. Finally, write about what changes you might make in your life to make use of this information. What can you do differently? How can you do it?

White Cake with White Frosting

Judy came to Rita a week before her birthday for a reading. This was Judy’s first birthday since her mother’s passing the summer before. Her mother, a baker, had always created elaborate birthday cakes to celebrate family birthdays. Because this was just a part of who her mother was, Judy had never appreciated these cakes, which were truly works of art. So now Judy wanted to contact her mother to say “I miss you so much, and I want to thank you.”

Rita started the reading, and quite quickly established a connection with Judy’s mother. After presenting Judy with the identifying information that confirmed this was indeed her mother, Rita said to Judy, “Your mother is presenting you with a white cake and white frosting for your birthday.”

Judy smiled and said, “That’s very sweet, but you must be mistaken. My mother would never have made me a plain white cake with plain white frosting while she was alive, and I can’t imagine that would be the message she would choose to send now.”

So Rita continued with the reading, presenting Judy with a variety of messages from her mother that ranged from “I’m glad you married Jed, he’s a good man,” to “I like your new hairstyle, it really accentuates your eyes.” Judy was delighted with this communication from her mother, and told Rita it was just like sitting in a room having a chat.

But Rita kept getting the message about the white cake with the white frosting. Finally, Rita said to Judy, “Your mother is very insistent about this white cake with the white frosting! She wants to present this to you in honor of your birthday.” Rita didn’t know that Judy’s birthday was coming up.

At first, Judy just sat there. Then her face turned pale and she burst into tears. Judy’s mother had really liked to bake, and always insisted on making gourmet cakes for family celebrations, but Judy had always begged for just a white cake with white frosting! The experience was very affirming and comforting to Judy because she knew her mother was really there and finally hearing her.

Seeking Clarification

Communication, spirit or earthbound, is not always clear or consistent. When in doubt, ask! Spirits aren’t intentionally mysterious or enigmatic; they want you to understand the messages they are bringing. Sometimes, however, they just aren’t able to communicate in ways that make sense to you. Of course, communication on the earth plane has its challenges, too—so much so that we might think of each other as being from different planets!

From the Spirit World

Is the confusion coming from the spirit? A spirit who was not especially articulate while on the earth plane, or who has been on the higher side for a long time (measured in earth plane time, of course), might struggle to find the right images and symbols. Sometimes, the symbolic language is different between the communicator and the medium. It’s fine to say, “I don’t understand. Can you put it another way?”

Is it the case that the medium seems to understand the message, but is having trouble conveying it to you? The message might be clear to the medium on a clairsentient level, but difficult to translate into language that communicates the message to you. It’s like trying to squeeze a baseball-size orange through a one-inch tube. You might succeed, but although what comes out the other end might smell and taste like an orange, it isn’t going to look anything like the orange it started as! Again, ask for clarification. Rita always tells people to let her know if there is anything they can’t relate to, and explains that she will ask her guides for clarification.

Silver Cord

When messages seem unclear, write down exactly what the message is as it’s coming through, to the best of your ability to capture it. Put this aside for a few days, and then come back to it. Sometimes things will make more sense when you give them a little distance.

From Yourself

Sometimes it’s us who don’t get the message, or we interpret it in ways that are different than the spirit bringing the message seemed to intend. This is especially likely to be the case when the message is counter to a long-held belief or resistance. If all of your life you viewed your father as distant and uninterested, you’re naturally going to resist messages from the other side that are attempting to communicate his love for you.

It could be that the message isn’t authentic; perhaps this isn’t really your father but another loved one who might have looked or sounded like your father—a grandfather, brother, or uncle. Or it could be that your father’s spirit has evolved enough on the other side to want to reach out to you to make amends. You should be able to get enough identifying information to determine which is the case. (See also “Desperate Illusions” in Chapter 10.)

Life-Changing Experiences

Sometimes spirit messages are so revelatory that they become turning points in your life. When you gain new understanding and insights, great. Let these insights guide the changes you make to restructure your life, and you have truly learned through spirit communication.

Just remember, however, that spirits don’t usually come through to say, “Invest in Microsoft and move to Denver.” Before you make a major life change, consider all of the ramifications, all of the pros and cons. Then make your decision based on all of the circumstances of your life. If you hate your job, have no one depending on you for support and sustenance, don’t like the weather in Phoenix, and just inherited $100,000 from Great Aunt Delia, then you might want to buy some Microsoft stock, quit your job, pack your things, and move to Denver. Don’t make a major change in your lifestyle, though, just because a medium or a spirit tells you to. This is your life, and only you should make the decisions that shape its direction.

The Peace of Understanding

Welcome the messages that come to you through spirit communication for the understanding and comfort they can bring to you. Accept the learning and the healing that comes to you from the higher side. Through spirit communication, you often can find answers that have otherwise eluded you.

The Least You Need to Know

• Spirit communication comes through for understanding and healing.

• The details are what confirms the spirit’s identity.

• Be prepared for spirit communication to bring powerful emotions to the surface.

• If a spirit message doesn’t make sense to you, seek clarification.

Part 4

Activating Your Spirit Senses

Do you follow your intuition even when it appears to be leading you in directions contrary to logic or common sense? Do you experience spirit contact? Many people have strong psychic and mediumistic abilities but don’t recognize it.

The chapters in this part discuss some of the advanced abilities that mediums use to communicate with spirits. More exercises let you test your own skills.

Chapter 14

Mediumistic Sight, Hearing, and Knowledge

In This Chapter

• Your physical senses and the tangible world

• Your psychic senses and the energy world

• Your psychical senses and the spirit world

• Enhancing your senses and expanding your perceptions

Among the fictional alien races the starship Enterprise encountered on TV’s popular science-fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation were the Betazoids. On the outside, these peaceful beings looked just as human as, well, humans. But on the inside … that was a different story. Advanced brain development and heightened function gave these aliens a unique ability: They were empaths. They could communicate without speaking, sensing each other’s thoughts as well as the thoughts of non-Betazoids. And even though Betazoids started life with their empathic powers, they had to practice to develop their skills.

Sometimes science fiction isn’t so far removed from reality! Although we’ve yet to send crews on spaceships to explore distant galaxies, the Hubble telescope speeds through space to orbit the earth about 15 times every 24 hours, sending back amazing images of faraway star systems. Human footprints trail across the lunar dust of the moon’s surface. Space shuttle flights and assignments to the orbiting space station have become almost routine for NASA astronauts and other scientists. And many ordinary human beings right here in the real world of everyday life—your friends, your colleagues, your relatives, and maybe even you!—have the psychical abilities that would make them feel right at home on Betazed, fictional home planet of the Betazoids.

Exploring Your Physical Senses

Yes, we do mean physical senses. These are the senses you first learned about in grade school science class and through which you experience the tangible world—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These senses connect you to your physical world, allowing you to gather the information that becomes your perceptions.

Learning to use your physical senses to their fullest extent increases your awareness of your surroundings. Look up from your reading right now. What is the first thing that you see? Describe everything about it that you can perceive through vision—colors, shapes, textures (as dimensional perceptions). When you’ve exhausted your visual perceptions, find one more visual detail. Repeat this exercise, calling on each of your physical senses. Make this a daily activity and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your sensory capabilities expand.

It’s a Tangible World

The energy that gives our physical world its form and context presents itself in many tangibilities. The frequency of an energy’s vibration determines our sensory experience of it. We see colors and shapes, smell fragrances, touch textures, taste flavors, hear sounds. The energies of these experiences are distinct and discreet most of the time. Most of us don’t taste colors, for example, or see sounds. (Although many mediums do.)

Nonetheless, our physical senses work in a sort of synchronous way. This is most obvious with the senses of taste and smell. Ever notice how the flavor goes flat in favorite foods when you have a cold that plugs your nose? That’s because much of what you perceive as flavor is actually smell rather than taste. The receptor cells for these two senses—technically known as olfaction and gustation, respectively—reside fairly close to each other and their signals travel to the same section in your brain for interpretation.

Other physical senses complement each other, too, although their interrelationships are often not as obvious. Typically you hear more clearly, and in greater detail, when you can also see the source of the sound. This allows you to combine visual signals with audio signals, expanding the range of information that reaches your brain. Similarly, sight enhances touch. Seeing an object’s size, consistency, color, and texture gives a framework for the perceptions of that object that come through touch.

Spiritology

Olfaction is the technical term for the sense of smell. Gustation is the technical term for the sense of taste (and the basis for the concept of “eating with gusto”).

Expanding Your Physical Senses: An Exercise

One way to expand your physical senses is to focus on one sense, gathering as much information as possible. Here is an exercise to help you do this:

1. Get a notepad and pen or pencil so you can write down your experiences. Then go to a location where there is a lot of activity, such as a park, a shopping mall, or a busy restaurant.

2. First, look around you. What do you see? Write down at least 10 sights.

3. Next, what do you hear? Write down at least 10 sounds.

4. Now, what can you touch with your hands, feet, and other parts of your body? (Consider the floor you walk on, the bench you sit on, even the pen and paper in your hands.) What do you feel, and with what part of your body? Write down at least 10 sensations.

5. What do you smell? Describe at least 10 fragrances and odors.

6. Taste is sometimes a difficult sense to integrate into an exercise such as this, unless you go to a restaurant or other location where you can drink and eat. If you are in such a location, write down your descriptions of the tastes you experience.

How often do you find yourself using more than one sense to form a perception? Think first about the primary sense that you’re using, and then any other senses that come into play. You might receive visual perceptions about a person, then add to the information you are gathering when you hear the person’s voice and smell any perfumes or fragrances (or other odors). Although the point of this exercise is to focus on what each sense can contribute to your perceptions, in practical use your sensory experiences combine to form impressions that are more complete.

Spiritology

Extrasensory perception (ESP) uses your nonphysical senses to gather impressions and perceptions about physical and nonphysical experiences.

Exploring Your Psychic Senses

Your psychic senses are your senses, sometimes called extrasensory perception (ESP). They allow you to take your physical senses to the next level, and also to gather information that your physical senses alone cannot detect.

Intuition: More Than Just a Feeling

Just about everyone has had “gut feelings”—about people, events, places, circumstances. You meet someone at a business luncheon and instantly know, without tangible information, that this person is someone to avoid. Maybe it’s that every hair on your body is standing on edge or that you can’t suppress the shudder that goes through you when you shake hands with this person. But you know. Your “gut feeling” is telling you something isn’t right.

Take this to the next level, and now you’re talking intuition. What images does the handshake evoke? What is your sense of this person? What other psychic senses does this person activate in you? What, precisely, is the message your intuition is giving you about this person? Some people experience vague intuitive messages, while others experience intuition that provides considerable detail.

You might have intuitive feelings about friends and family, or about such mundane events in daily life as what song will play next on the radio (a fairly common manifestation of intuition). You can cultivate this psychic sense by practicing it.

Telepathy: Reach Out and Connect

Telepathy is the communication that takes place without using your physical senses. It’s not really mind reading, although that’s a common perception. Rather, telepathy is a process of sending and receiving messages. You might, however, “pick up” on messages that others don’t realize they’re sending to you.

Telepathy, like initial mediumistic experiences, can feel more like imagination than ability when you are new to your awareness of it. After all, how can you really know what’s in someone else’s head? You can, of course, but proof can be elusive. But with practice, you will soon learn to distinguish between what you think or imagine and what you receive and send. Chapter 15 discusses telepathy in detail.

Premonition

No one, not even the most talented psychic or medium, can “read” your mind and receive information that you don’t wish to share. Your private thoughts and feelings are always yours; your spirit guides help assure this. Sometimes you do send messages about your thoughts and feelings without consciously realizing that you are doing so. This happens because you are willing, on a spirit level, to share them, which is how it might seem that a psychic has tapped into your innermost thoughts.

Precognition: Sensing the Future

Do you ever sense something, an event or occurrence, and then find that later it happens? This is precognition, a psychic ability to perceive experiences beyond the boundaries of time. This psychic sense taps into the universal energy field, the energy of all existence, encompassing the physical and nonphysical worlds. A common form of precognition is crisis precognition, in which we sense impending difficulties or disaster involving loved ones here on the earth plane.

You might think of precognition as predicting the future. Certainly when events unfold as you sensed them (especially when there was no way you could have known of their details), this appears to be the case. But remember that precognition transcends the borders of time that define the events and reality of our physical world. This definition construes time as a linear continuum. Time really isn’t linear; it’s coexistent. That is, all time exists simultaneously. There is no past, present, or future—there are only our perceptions of these conceptual dividing points.

Silver Cord

Is it possible to change the future? Certainly! Could you prevent the assassination of a world leader because you had a premonition that it would happen? Probably not, unless you are a member of the leader’s security detail and can intervene with physical events as they unfold. Many, many choices and decisions determine the course of events.

Most people aren’t aware of precognitive experiences until after the events they perceived unfold. This gives the appearance that the events were destined to occur. You read a newspaper report about an assassination attempt on a world leader, and suddenly realize, “I knew this was going to happen!” But there are myriad circumstances that also unfold, countless events that are the result of choices and decisions—the all-important function of free will.

Psychometry: Reading the Energy

Many psychics have trouble going into antique stores. The residual energy stored in their furnishings and objects can rush out at the psychically sensitive just as the smell of baking cinnamon rolls floods through a shopping mall with a bakery. Touching an object connects you with the energy it has stored from others who have touched or owned it. You might experience this energy through any of your psychic senses. Chapter 16 discusses psychometry in detail.

Exercises for Expanding Your Psychic Senses

You can expand the capabilities of your psychic senses by practicing them. Let’s use intuition as an example (we’ll give you exercises to build your telepathic and psychometric abilities in later chapters). Spontaneous intuition often comes to people during everyday activities. Here are some ways to “tune in” to your intuition, making it a more conscious function.

• Listening to the radio. Do you listen to the radio in the car and at work? Try to intuit what song will play next. When you get good at this (or tired of it), try to intuit what commercial will come on next.

• Answering the telephone. How often do you reach for the ringing telephone and “know” who’s calling? Or pick up the phone before it rings to find someone on the other end who has just dialed your number? When the phone rings, take a moment to try and sense who’s on the other end of the line. Quickly jot the name on a piece of paper, then answer the phone. Were you right?

• Listening to your inner voice. What inner messages do you receive when meeting people for the first time? When you have the opportunity, write down these perceptions (most people will be quite unnerved if you whip out a notepad and say, “Just a minute! Let me get this down!”). Make sure that you keep these notes in a secure place where others aren’t likely to come across them. Later, go back to your notes and see how accurate your perceptions were.

• Rolling the dice. Take a set of dice in your hand. Predict the number, and then roll the dice. How often does your number come up?

• Cutting a deck of cards. Get a deck of cards that you use for nothing else but this exercise (so you don’t pick up any other energies). Decide that you want to turn up two cards, such as a jack and a queen. Cut the deck; see if you cut it on that card, or that card is the next card above or below. How close are you?

These are only starting points. There are endless ways to use intuition in your life, and the more you use it the better at it you will become.

Exploring Your Psychical Senses

Your psychical senses are closely related to your psychic senses. But rather than using them to explore earth plane experiences, you use them to connect with the spirit world. The three key psychical senses—clairaudience, clairvoyance, and clairsentience—correspond to key physical senses (hearing and sight) and psychic senses (intuition).

Clairaudience: Hearing the Unspoken

Clairaudience is the inner sense of psychical hearing, the ability to hear voices and sounds from beyond the earth plane. A spirit contact might begin with the sense that someone is talking to you. You don’t actually hear these words in the same way you hear the words of someone who is talking right in front of you. Instead, you hear them within your head. You might even feel that you’re imagining them!

Because spirit contact usually comes for a purpose, to deliver a message, the spirit might persist with the message until you finally “get” it. You may or may not know the spirit communicator, and the message could be for you or for someone else. You might hear the words over and over, or perceive the message as a directive: “Tell Robert not to worry. His job will change, but it will be for the better and he’ll do fine.”

It’s important to first just receive the message, without attempting to filter or interpret it. This is especially important if the message is for you to deliver to someone else; let that person decide what the message actually means.

Early in her mediumistic experiences, Rita was doing a church service and had had few clear clairaudient experiences. She was receiving a lot of information for a woman in the congregation, and the woman was nodding and agreeing. Then Rita kept hearing “Frenchie” without much context, so after a few moments she just put the word out there for the woman. The woman was very excited; this was the nickname of a woman who had been a close friend and mentor!

Another time, Rita had a set of parents coming through for two sisters. The father was an accomplished musician, and the music was coming through. Rita was talking about how magnificent the music was, and then said: “Now your mother is here.” Then Rita heard someone just banging out a tune, like a marching band. She shared this with the daughters, who started laughing. “Yes, mother sure could bang out a tune!” one of them said.

When you receive clairaudience, use the opportunity to refine and develop this sense. Determine the following:

• What does the voice sound like?

• Is the voice male or female, old or young, soft or harsh?

• Do you know whose voice it is?

• What is the message?

• Is the message for you or for you to deliver to someone else?

Messages that are for you might also come through the clairaudience of a medium. When this is the case, remember that the medium’s consciousness filters this message; it’s unavoidable. If the message is clear and makes perfect sense to you, great! If it seems vague or perhaps even unrelated to you, ask the medium for clarification. There might be symbolism in the words the spirit communicator chooses to use, or the spirit just might not be expressing the message clearly. Verbal communication on the earth plane can be challenging enough!

Mediums and Messages

During a reading, a grandfather came through. He started out talking about his personality, which was sometimes very sweet but sometimes very strong. Rita kept seeing a newspaper being held in front of his face. Rita told the woman she was doing the reading for, “He sits there with the newspaper in front of his face, almost as though he’s hiding because he doesn’t want to talk to people.” Three or four times Rita mentioned this, and the woman finally said, “You never said he was reading the paper. Yes, this is my grandfather. I didn’t find out until after he died that he actually couldn’t read!”

Clairvoyance: Seeing Visions

Clairvoyance is the inner sense of psychical vision, the ability to see images from beyond the earth plane. Such visions might be explicit, showing you facial details and clothing, for example. More often, clairvoyant images are less specific and might be shadowy or incomplete. You might see, in your mind’s eye, the image of a person’s head and upper body, but not the arms and legs. Or you might see a steering wheel, but not the car. Even when incomplete, clairvoyant images can be quite vivid—they seem real and tangible even as you know they are not.

At other times, clairvoyant images are more dreamlike. The images might be symbolic or representative rather than literal. You might repeatedly see the color blue, the shape of a triangle, a marigold in full bloom. Every medium has a “dictionary” of symbols; certain objects and images that have specific meanings whenever they appear. This symbolism may or may not make sense in terms of earth plane experiences.

When you receive clairvoyant messages, try to experience as much of the images as possible. If you are alone or in a circle, describe out loud what you’re seeing. If this is not practical (the images come to you when others are there or you just can’t speak out loud), explore the images as much as your mind’s eye will permit, and when the clairvoyant experience is over write down as much as you can recall.

• What exactly do you see? Describe shapes, colors, features.

• Is the image clear and complete, or foggy and incomplete?

• Do you recognize the image? If so, what is it? If not, what does it remind you of or make you think of?

• Does the image relate to your life?

• What seems to be the message of the image?

If a medium brings through clairvoyant images, ask for clarification about anything that doesn’t quite make sense. If the medium describes someone that sounds very much like your father who has passed but this spirit is showing with a full beard and wearing a hat, two things never associated with your father, this might seem inconsistent and therefore incorrect. Don’t be so quick to jump to such a conclusion!

Rita begins every sitting with, “I am seeing …” because she is predominantly clairvoyant and sees images all the time. In one sitting, she was clearly tasting all of the father’s favorite foods and talking about it. Then Rita received an image of the father with a huge bowl of salad in front of him and then pushing it away as if he didn’t want it. The woman laughed; her father had always refused to eat salad!

Spirits present themselves as they want to be seen. Maybe there’s a joke in this image for you—did your dad try to grow a beard but was unsuccessful or people made fun of him? Did he have a favorite hat that you hated or found embarrassing? Spirits love humor! Even if your father never wanted a beard or wore a hat on the earth plane, he might want to present himself in this way to you now as a message that he’s perhaps loosened up or is enjoying a carefree existence. And of course, there is always the possibility that the medium has misinterpreted the image, which is why you should ask for clarification when the descriptions seem off.

Clairsentience: Experiential Knowledge

Clairsentience is like intuition to the tenth degree. It is the psychical sense of just knowing, and the psychical sense mediums experience all the time. Mediums feel the presence of spirits, feel the size and bulk of their bodies, the stance of the person, just like they are standing inside of them. They feel the condition that caused the person’s passing, can smell or taste—as if actually within the person.

Premonition

Spirit messages come to us for good and for healing, not to do harm. If you are hearing voices or seeing images that are instructing you to hurt yourself or others, this is not spirit communication. Please seek help from a psychologist or therapist.

Some mediums view clairsentience as a discreet psychical sense, while others perceive it as the combination of multiple psychical senses. In some regards, this is like trying to separate the physical senses of smell and taste. Yes, each is a discreet and individual sense that responds to particular sensations. Yet one does not function completely without the other.

Clairsentience is an experience of the whole. You might get the sensation of hearing a voice, seeing an image, and even smelling a fragrance or odor—all at the same time, just as your physical senses experience a person who walks into the room. Or you might not have any tangible perceptions, but just an overall sense of a place or an event.

To get the most from clairsentient experiences, open yourself fully to the experience. Let all of the information come through. After the experience concludes, try to answer these questions:

• Do you recognize the person, place, or event?

• How are you experiencing these perceptions? Can you identify specific psychical senses?

• What seems to be the nature or purpose of this clairsentient experience? Is the message for you or for you to deliver to someone else?

• How do you feel as this experience is unfolding? Are you aware of external activities and sensations, or has the clairsentient experience completely enveloped you?

Clairsentient perceptions might feel intangible, unreal, and even more mysterious than dreams or imagination, especially when you are new to exploring your psychical senses. With practice and focus, clairsentient experiences can be quite amazing and profound.

Setting Aside Consciousness

Sometimes your conscious mind gets in the way of, or limits, your psychical senses. There are a number of ways that you can set aside your consciousness to enhance the perceptions of your psychical senses.

Meditation

Meditation is the process of preparing your mind for openness. It is not, as those unfamiliar with it sometimes assume, a process of emptying your mind. That would be impossible! Meditation is rather a means of refining your focus so that you gradually exclude disruptions and interruptions. There are many ways to meditate and many purposes for meditating; here, we’ll just look at meditation as a means of connecting with spirits.

Remember the “Meet Your Spirit Guides” exercise from Chapter 7? That is a form of meditation. In that exercise, you used your mind to place yourself in a receptive mode. You did this by focusing on specific details: sitting on a bench, looking at and smelling flowers, watching your spirit guide approach. The more you focused on these details, the more specific they became and the less aware you were of the endless other activities of your thoughts, memories, and brain and body functions. You were able to go within yourself, to use your inner senses (your psychical senses) to experience energy perceptions from beyond the earth plane.

Trance

A trance is a state of suspended consciousness into which a medium enters to allow spirits to communicate through him or her. When this happens, the medium’s spirit steps aside to let the visiting spirit “borrow” some of the medium’s physical abilities, such as speech. A medium in trance state might also take on the physical mannerisms and gestures of the visiting spirit, seeming to become the spirit’s personification.

Silver Cord

An experienced medium can control both entering and emerging from the trance state. An inexperienced medium might find that a visiting spirit wants to stay a little longer, like a child who doesn’t want to leave an amusement park even though it’s closing time. After all, visiting spirits enjoy their contacts with us, and some are reluctant to give up center stage! This, again, is why it’s so essential to establish your intent for spirit communication to come through in light and for the highest good. Experienced mediums have made their limits clear, which sets the boundaries for the visiting spirit’s stay.

This is a shared experience between the medium’s spirit and the visiting spirit. The visiting spirit cannot make the medium do or say anything he or she does not want to do or say, nor has the spirit any interest in trying to do so. Visiting spirits come through with messages that they want to convey to us here on the earth plane—scaring the bejesus out of us isn’t going to do much for their credibility!

Dreams

“To sleep, perchance to dream ….” The immortal words of William Shakespeare capture the delight and escape that dreaming offers. In the dream state, your conscious mind retreats and releases its control and censorship of the activities of your brain. This frees the mind to experience perceptions that would otherwise be blocked.

The brain, as the physical organ that interprets the vast range of perceptions you experience, is particularly receptive to mediumistic messages during the dream state. Rita often finds that spirit messages come to her in the dream state. Although she has established a restriction around spirits waking her from sleep unless absolutely necessary, she frequently awakens with the realization that she’s received spirit messages.

Sometimes spirit messages have the appearance of dreams. You might wake up with images of visiting with your mother who has passed, for example, and feel as though you “lived” the scenario in your dream. The dreamscape might be a presentation of an actual setting or event from when your mother was alive on the earth plane and the two of you went somewhere or did something together. This might feel to you like a dream-memory—reliving in your dreams a favorite memory from your life. Or your dreamscape might be someplace fantastical, magical, mystical—clearly not a setting you’ve ever experienced in your tangible life.

Keeping a journal is an effective way to explore your dreams and spirit messages that come to you through dreams or in the dream state. Keep a pad and pencil next to your bed, and write down the images and feelings that are present when you wake up. Later, when you have the time and the opportunity to explore these impressions, write about what you think they mean.

One helpful technique is free association. From the notes you wrote about your dream experiences, make a list of what appear to be key words or concepts. Beside each word, write the first thoughts that come to you. Don’t let your conscious mind censor this process! Just let the thoughts and images flow. Give yourself 30 seconds to a minute for each, and then move to the next. You don’t want to be thinking and analyzing, just reacting.

See Chapter 17 for more about dreams, including special dream states such as lucid dreaming and astral travel.

Spiritology

Free association is the practice of saying or writing the first thing that comes to mind in response to a particular word or image.

Transcending Boundaries

One of the most exciting aspects of developing your physical, psychic, and psychical senses is that it expands your awareness of the experiences that are your life. This brings a fullness and richness to your life, like seeing a black-and-white photograph become full color. It can put you in touch with your mission in this life, make you laugh (and make you cry), help you understand why certain things happen, and connect you with loved ones who are important to you in a continuing affirmation of the continuity of life.

The Least You Need to Know

• Your physical, psychic, and psychical senses present you with the information that shapes your perceptions of your existence.

• With practice, you can enhance any and all of these senses.

• Energy is the connecting force that links all of your senses.

• Using your senses to their fullest expands your perceptions and heightens your awareness, enriching your life.

Chapter 15

Telepathic Bridges

In This Chapter

• What telepathy is … and isn’t

• Studies of telepathy

• An exercise to sharpen your telepathic skills

• Putting telepathy to work

• Let your spirit do the visiting

• Two exercises in astral projection

Your mind is a powerful tool. As a bridge between your thoughts and your spirit, it converts energy into images, memories, and articulations. You can’t see your mind, although certainly you can show it! Scientists have explored the workings of the mind for decades. Some now believe there are chemicals called polypeptides that conduct the energy impulses we identify as the mind’s functions, activating the brain cells that translate the impulses into perceptions.

Telepathy comes from Greek words meaning “far feeling.” Sometimes called thought transference, it is a process of exchanging energy to communicate, rather than using physical senses. When telepathy takes place between mortals, it’s a psychic skill.

Just as children are sensitive to spirit presence, they have strong telepathic capabilities. The unspoken communication between mother and child can be remarkable to observe. Even more amazing is a mother’s sudden recognition, without physical evidence and often when her child is nowhere in sight, that something is wrong. Every family has its collection of in-the-nick-of-time rescue stories.

Read My Mind!

Scientists tell us that, at most, we use about 10 percent of our mental capacity. That leaves quite a lot of ability untapped! Surely all those gray cells aren’t just hanging around waiting for electrical impulses to stimulate them. In fact, they might already be hard at work, and you just don’t know it.

How often does something like this happen to you:

• You’re having lunch with a friend, and you both start to say the same thing.

• You’re talking on the phone with your brother and you say what he is thinking.

• You stop by your sister’s house to drop off the jacket you borrowed just as she’s calling to tell you she needs it back.

• Your spouse stops at the grocery store on the way home from work and buys the items on the list you just wrote out.

• You pick up the phone to call your mother just as she was about to call you.

• You and a stranger walk toward each other on the sidewalk. You both step to the right, then to the left, then to the right again as you unsuccessfully try to let the other pass. Finally you each step to the side and gesture for the other to go past.

All these situations could be examples of telepathy. Telepathy often occurs between two people who are emotionally connected to each other. The deeper the emotional bond, the more likely and frequent telepathic communication is. You think about an event or object, which intensifies its energy in your mind. Someone who is emotionally close to you picks up the signal because it’s a change in the normal balance of energy between the two of you.

What about the last example in the list? This truly is a random event, because you and the stranger don’t know each other. But you’re likely sending messages to each other that arise from the small but nonetheless present anxiety about who should step aside. Each of you picks up the energy signal the other sends—and the signals happen to carry the same message.

Was It a Dream?

The dream state is an environment in which you are particularly receptive to telepathic communication, from other mortals as well as from spirit entities. The filters of your conscious mind are asleep, so to speak. The dream state serves as a telepathic bridge, a communication connection that bypasses the physical senses.

You might awaken from a dream in which you’ve experienced telepathic communication confused about whether you dreamed it or whether it was real. It can be hard for you to tell, but is often easy to confirm if the communication was with someone you know. Ask the other person who was in your dream if he or she had a similar dream. Sometimes it takes several days, weeks, or even months before you recognize the telepathic nature of a particular dream. Telepathic dreams can involve either incarnate (physical) or discarnate (spirit) beings. If your dream involves communication with a spirit being, you can ask the spirit to visit you again (more on this later in this chapter).

Spirits like to visit during your dream state for much the same reason: You’re open to it. It’s common to dream of a visit with a loved one who has passed, and for you to share favorite experiences. If your mother loved flowers, she might come to you in your dreams and stroll with you through elaborate gardens. (See Chapter 17 for more about dreams.)

Silver Cord

Keeping a dream journal is an excellent way to learn how to understand your personal dream symbolism. The symbolic elements that show up in your dreams are likely the same ones that emerge when there is spirit contact for you. Dreams can provide insights and information that wouldn’t come to you in any other way. You might even discover that your dreams are also the venues for spirit visits.

Psychic Prying: Stay Out!

So is your mind an open book? Are your thoughts available to anyone who chooses to peek at them? Certain thoughts are openly available, if you are not taking any measures to protect them. These are the things that are moving through your consciousness. If someone said, “What are you thinking right now?” these are the thoughts you would mention.

It is unethical to attempt to perceive another person’s thoughts without that person’s knowledge and permission. It’s like walking into someone’s house without knocking or announcing yourself. This kind of “mind reading” is intrusive and is seldom done in goodness.

You can protect yourself from being on the receiving end of psychic prying. Just establish a protection of light around your being. Envision this as a dome that covers you. Establish the intent that only those with whom you wish to communicate on a telepathic level can have access. This creates a shield around your thoughts.

It’s Your Mind, and Only You Can Control It

Some people believe that they can use their thoughts to control others. No one can control your thoughts or “will” you to do something you don’t want to do. What a dangerous weapon this could be, were it possible! But even extensive government experiments during the Cold War era proved that it’s not possible.

Various agencies of the United States and the former Soviet Union conducted tests of telepathic communication and control in the 1960s and 1970s. Although psychically gifted test subjects scored high in ESP tests such as perceiving the symbols on cards, they did no better than the odds of chance in using telepathy to “will” other subjects to some sort of action. Mind control is a tantalizing concept of science fiction, and so far it remains safely contained in the realm of fiction rather than exposed in the arena of science.

Crisis Contact

Many people experience telepathic communication in times of crisis. One friend suddenly perceives that another friend has been in a car accident. A sister living on the West Coast gets a sense of panic about her brother living in the Southeast, then hears on the news that a tornado swept through the town where he lives.

Energy intensifies in times of crisis. When bonds already exist between people, rapid spikes in energy intensity send a psychic alert. Sometimes more than two people are involved in the telepathic communication, as when a crisis involves a parent and the children and all of them experience some form of a connection as a result. Each person’s experience can be different.

Sometimes crisis telepathy presents itself as a warning, a connection of intuition that is sent directly from one person to another without conscious intervention of the mind. You might not even realize that you’ve sent a telepathic warning to someone until that person calls or otherwise contacts you.

Validating Telepathy

The first formal efforts to analyze telepathic experiences and understand the processes of telepathy took place in the 1880s, when the Society for Psychical Research in London began publishing reports about the phenomenon in its journals. As the circulation for those journals grew, so did interest around the world. In these early explorations, researchers used the term extrasensory perception, or ESP, to describe the ability to communicate without using the physical senses.

Sir Arthur Explores Thought Transference

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective novels and an early member of the Spiritualist movement (see Chapter 3), was fascinated with what was at the time called thought transference. He and an architect friend in another location decided to see how well and how much faster they could communicate architectural ideas and drawings than through the process of writing and mailing their ideas to each other. They agreed that at a specified time every week, each would sit down and sketch his ideas, then concentrate on sending the images to the other. They would then switch and focus on receiving the images the other was sending, and sketch those.

They were on target with each other far more frequently than the odds of chance, and Doyle became convinced of the scientific validity of telepathic communication. He later continued some of his studies through the Society for Psychical Research, and published many of his writings on the topic.

J. B. Rhine and Zener Cards

In 1930, an American parapsychologist, J. B. (Joseph Banks) Rhine (1895-1980), at Duke University began conducting experiments following scientific research conventions. At first, Rhine used common items to test the ability of subjects to telepathically send and receive messages. Among them was an ordinary deck of playing cards.

Then a colleague and fellow parapsychologist, Karl Zener, developed the set of special cards, known today as Zener cards, with five symbols: circle, square, star, wavy lines, and plus sign. The deck contains 25 cards, 5 of each symbol. The odds of randomly guessing the correct symbol are one in five.

In early tests, subjects sat across a table from each other. One subject turned up a card, holding it so the other subject couldn’t see it, and concentrated on sending a mental image of the card’s symbol to the other subject. The other subject then said what he or she thought the symbol was.

Spiritology

A parapsychologist is a scientist who studies psychic phenomena. The word parapsychology means “study of what is around the mind.”

A score of 20 percent right is the baseline, because this is the number of right answers likely just on the basis of the odds. Scores higher than 20 percent suggest telepathic ability on the part of one or both subjects. More important, high scores validate that telepathy is in fact a real, observable phenomenon. Because of their simplicity and consistency, Zener cards have become a standard for telepathic training as well as testing.

Later experiments put the two subjects in separate rooms so they couldn’t see or hear each other, or in any other way use their physical senses to communicate. This came in response to criticism that subjects could give each other subtle signals that tipped off which cards were being turned over. Separation didn’t change the results.

You can use Zener cards to improve your personal telepathic abilities. They are available at many metaphysical shops and bookstores. Practice working with a friend to send as well as receive card images. Telepathy is like any other skill. The more you use it, the more proficient you become.

Silver Cord

Parapsychologist J. B. Rhine was inspired to study psychic phenomena by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s studies in thought transference. Ironically, Rhine earned Doyle’s ire later in his life for exposing as a fraud a medium that Doyle respected.

Early in Rita’s psychic development, her friend Judy became convinced of Rita’s telepathic abilities but Rita still felt unsure. So Judy and Rita agreed that, as a test, they would both meditate at 10 P.M. on a Friday to see if they could communicate telepathically. Rita would then call Judy at 10:20 P.M.

At 10 P.M., Rita began to meditate and set her intent on visiting her friend Judy. When she went into meditation, she could clearly see Judy’s apartment. She saw Judy sitting on the left corner of the couch, wearing a geometric print caftan. Rita saw an incredible white glow around Judy.

When Rita called Judy at 10:20 P.M. and described to Judy what she had seen, Judy was delighted. In fact, she was sitting in the corner of the couch wearing that geometric caftan. “I’m glad you could see the glow around me as I was meditating,” Judy told Rita. Rita “visited” Judy telepathically just as vividly as if they’d been physically sitting in the room together.

Sharpening Your Telepathic Skills: An Exercise

Do you have a friend who is as interested in telepathy as you are? Here’s an exercise that the two of you can do together to practice and sharpen your telepathic skills.

1. Determine a time at which you will, each in your separate locations, sit down to meditate. Determine how long your meditation will last (10 minutes is good). Use one half of this time to send, and one half to receive a message. (Make sure your times are opposite, so that one of you receives when the other sends!) Use a timer to signal the end of each time period.

2. At the agreed-upon time, begin your meditation. Ask for the meditation to proceed in goodness and light. Start with three deep, cleansing breaths.

3. Concentrate on sending a message to your friend. Perceive the message in whatever way feels comfortable to you, but stick with a single representation.

4. When the sending time is up, take three cleansing breaths and shift to receive mode. Concentrate on opening your mind to the message your friend is sending.

5. When the meditation time is up, bring yourself back to the context of your physical environment.

6. Write down everything you can remember about the experience. On one side of a piece of paper, write the messages you were trying to send to your friend. On the other side, write the messages you think you received from your friend.

7. Phone or visit each other to compare experiences. How often were you right? When you were wrong, were you off in consistent ways, such as perceiving yellow when your friend sent you the color orange?

Generally speaking, if you are on target more often than not, you’ve exceeded the odds of chance. The greater the gap between on and off, the more intense the telepathic experience. Don’t be discouraged if at first you barely hit the odds of chance (or even are below them). You will improve with practice! As you become more proficient, make your messages more complex.

Telekinesis: Using Telepathy to Move Objects

Telekinesis (also called psychokinesis) is the phenomenon of using the mind’s energy to move objects without physical intervention. Perhaps the most famous demonstrations of telekinesis came in the 1970s when a young psychic from Russia named Uri Geller came to prominence for his ability to bend spoons and other metal objects without any physical contact.

How does this work? One theory is that the concentration of energy from your mind alters the energy structure of the object you’re focusing on. At the point when you release your mind’s stream of energy, the object re-forms itself according to the energy pattern you’ve been sending. If you’ve sent bending, the spoon bends. If you’ve sent twisting, it twists.

You can practice telekinesis in a kinder, gentler way. All you need is a quarter. If you toss a quarter ten times, your odds of calling whether it lands heads or tails are about 50-50. There are only two choices, which keep the experiment simple. Calling heads or tails correctly more times than not demonstrates telepathic ability—you are “reading” the energy of the coin to identify which side is up.

Directing the coin to land either heads or tails demonstrates telekinetic ability. You are using the energy of your mind to guide the coin’s fall in a determined way. Go ahead, practice! When you get good with the coin, move on to a pair of dice; or one die, to keep it a little less complicated. Just be sure that you focus on sending energy to direct the number at which the roll will stop rather than trying to determine what the number will be. A fine point, but it’s the point of distinction between telepathy and telekinesis in this context.

Astral Projection

Astral projection is the phenomenon of your spirit leaving your body to travel beyond it. You might call this psychic visiting. Sometimes it happens spontaneously. You might have a flash image of a friend working at her desk, and then call and tell her what she’s wearing or what she’s doing. You also can cultivate this psychic skill through practice.

Silver Cord

Astral projection is a conscious form of telepathic visitation. You are deciding o “visit” another person or place. Telepathic communication can happen without a conscious effort, such as crisis telepathy.

Here are two exercises that you can use to practice astral projection. As always when working with spirit phenomena, start each exercise by asking for goodness and light. Even though with astral projection you’re not asking for spirit contact, you are connecting your spirit with other spirit energy when your spirit leaves your physical body.

How is it that your soul can travel about, and then know to return to your physical body? Doesn’t it seem that the freedom of not having a body would be quite enticing? You have an energy umbilical cord, so to speak, that links your spirit with your body for as long as your body lives. It’s called the silver cord.

This is not a tangible or physical connection, but a link of energy. Your silver cord keeps your body and your spirit connected, no matter what your state of consciousness. It is said that your silver cord appears at physical birth and disappears at physical death.

Astral Projection Exercise: Two People

This exercise requires two people. Choose someone you trust who shares your interest in astral projection. As in the telepathy exercise, be in different physical locations.

1. Determine a time at which you will each meditate, and for how long (five minutes is good). Use a timer so you know when your time is up.

2. At the agreed-upon time, begin your meditation. Ask for the meditation to proceed in goodness and light. Start with three deep, cleansing breaths.

3. Concentrate on your friend. Release your mind to travel to him or her.

4. What can you hear? What can you see? What can you feel? What is your friend doing? What is your friend wearing?

5. When the meditation time is up, bring yourself back to the context of your physical environment.

6. Write down everything you can remember about what you experienced—sights, sounds, smells, even tastes.

7. Call or visit your friend to share experiences.

Astral Projection Exercise: Solo

This is an exercise you can do by yourself.

1. Sit where you are comfortable and there are no distractions. Determine the length of time you want to meditate (or let the meditation run its own course, which you can do because you are alone in this exercise).

2. Begin your meditation. Ask for the meditation to proceed in goodness and light. Start with three deep, cleansing breaths.

3. Focus on letting your spirit go to sit across from you, so you can see it.

4. Through your spirit, see your physical self.

5. What do you see? Is the experience similar to looking in a mirror? If not, how is it different?

6. When your meditation is over, bring yourself gently back to your physical environment.

How completely were you able to leave your body? How did you feel during the experience? How do you feel about it now?

Mediums and Messages

The first time Rita tried the solo astral projection exercise, she chose to sit outside on her deck. Because the day felt a bit chilly, she wore a vest. She projected out okay, but then all she could see was the color yellow. So she went back into her body and asked, “What am I doing wrong?” The response came back: “Sitting too close!” Rita had projected her spirit from her body, but only slightly—all she could see was the yellow of her vest! She did the exercise again, and this time sat across the deck from herself.

What’s Spirit Have to Do with It?

When telepathic communication takes place between a physical being (like you) and a spirit entity, it becomes spirit communication. Most mediums don’t use the term telepathy in reference to spirit communication, because usually spirit communication takes place using more specific and sophisticated methods, such as clairaudience and clairvoyance. These methods give more extensive information.

The Least You Need to Know

• Telepathy lets you communicate without using your physical senses.

• Only you—no one else—can control your thoughts and mind.

• Telepathy often happens during dreams, although it can be confusing to separate the communication from dream elements.

• Telekinesis lets you use telepathy to influence the physical actions of objects.

• With practice, you can improve your telepathic skills.

Chapter 16

Psychometry: The Power of Places and Objects

In This Chapter

• The energy trail you leave in your wake

• What objects are most likely to retain energy

• How to “read” energy imprints

• Exercises to improve your psychometry skills

• Psychometry as a bridge to spirit contact

Places and objects hold residual energy from the souls that come in contact with them as energy imprints. Sometimes the sense of this is strong, as when you touch a lamp in an antique store and the image of a pioneer woman reading beneath its light flashes through your mind. Sometimes the sense is weak, as when you feel a slight tingle at holding your grandmother’s favorite button tin in your hands. Psychometric ability can turn places and objects into links between this world and the hereafter.

When you take a photograph, fragments of light interact with the molecules that form the surface of the film to take shape as visual images. The film—or the negatives processed from it—contain those fragments, those bits and pieces of energy, virtually indefinitely (well, at least as long as the film remains intact and undamaged). As many times as you want, you can develop pictures from that film. You can look at these pictures again and again, the representations of energy that you’ve captured on paper.

Spirit energy is like light energy in that it alters surfaces that it contacts. It interacts with the molecules that form those surfaces, leaving virtually indelible fragments. These fragments, when “developed” through psychic expression, present images. Rather than taking visual shape, like pictures, these energy imprints can take many forms. But unlike pictures, these energy imprints are dynamic. That is to say, every new energy contact with them (such as you picking up the object that holds them) can evoke something different. You get something like a metaphysical slide show (although the images are not always visual).

Energy Imprints

Whatever you touch, you leave a little of yourself behind. From a physical perspective, you leave molecules of scent and skin oils. These are the substances that tracking dogs can detect. (A dog’s nose is so sensitive to smell, it can “read” just a few molecules.) You might also leave fingerprints, skin cells, and DNA (microscopic fragments of your genetic coding). These are the substances that high-tech detective methods can retrieve and use to identify you. Solid surfaces such as desktops, doorknobs, and windows are likely to collect more of these physical tracings from your touch.

You also leave energy molecules. These are intangible and undetectable by physical means. Energy imprints are often micro-vignettes that capture and store representations based in emotion. In touching the object, you might feel a flash of joy or of sadness. You might see, fleetingly in your mind’s eye, the image of a baby’s birth or the gathering at a funeral. The stronger the emotional connection, the more intense the energy imprint … and the more vivid the energy “replay” that occurs.

The more often you touch an object, the more of your energy it retains. Items worn often and close to the body, such as wedding rings and favorite clothing, retain high levels of energy. Items you touch infrequently, such as silverware or jewelry you wear just once a year, typically retain low levels of energy.

An object you touch infrequently can hold a lot of residual energy if the only times you touch it are emotionally intense. If the jewelry you wear once a year is the necklace and earrings you wore at your wedding and now wear it when you celebrate your anniversary, it’s going to hold much more energy than if it’s a bracelet you bought on a whim and wear only occasionally because you feel guilty about leaving it sit in your jewelry box. Because people pray with them, rosary beads often contain strong personal energy.

Capturing Energy Imprints on Film

In 1939, Seymon Kirlian, a Russian electrician by trade and inventor by avocation, discovered that when he took pictures of his hand, the developed photographs often showed a glow around his fingers—his hand’s energy field. One of the most famous examples of Kirlian photography came from the University of California Center for Health Science, showing the glowing photographic image of a full leaf although the leaf in the picture had a piece ripped off. The leaf’s energy field completed its image, even though the leaf was no longer intact.

Since its inception Kirlian photography has evolved in various technological directions, some of which use electrical equipment rather than cameras to capture images of energy. Currently, researchers are exploring ways to apply Kirlian photography to medical diagnosis and treatment. Doctors have long known that the body’s energy composition changes in illness. Whether you look at these changes as physiological—the outcome of biochemical changes within the body—or spiritual, they are verifiable. Researchers hope that some day Kirlian technology will present energy images that can monitor the progress of treatment for serious diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Spiritology

Kirlian photography is a process of taking pictures in which the photo shows the object and its energy field.

What Kinds of Objects Retain Energy?

Any object that you touch holds at least a little of your energy. Some objects hold energy longer than others. Generally, the more solid or dense the object, the longer it retains energy imprints. Metals, jewelry, and even items such as pottery or crystal can hold a person’s energy over generations of time. But even fabric, books, papers, and other more fragile objects can retain energy for surprisingly long periods of time—perhaps however long is necessary for the object to convey its energy messages to the person who needs to receive them.

Metals

The physical structure of any metal is very dense. As a result, it holds energy for a long, long time. Ann’s grandfather, a firefighter, died in the line of duty fighting a fire when Ann was just four years old. Ann had been the last person in the family, other than her grandmother, of course, to speak to him that fateful day. Many years later, as Ann prepared to sell the house where her grandparents had lived, she came across an envelope pushed to the back of a bureau drawer. Inside the envelope she found the belongings her grandfather had carried on his person the day he died.

When Ann picked up her grandfather’s keys, she felt a tingling, almost like an electrical charge, and remembered herself as a four-year-old, sitting on her grandfather’s lap. Image after image of her grandfather and his life flashed through Ann’s inner vision, including his last moments in the fire. All these years, these keys retained his energy … and now, 40 years after his death, that energy surged as a gift connecting Ann with her grandfather.

Objects like keys and jewelry retain great amounts of energy not only because they’re metal but also because they’re usually in daily contact with whomever uses or wears them. Every morning after putting on his firefighter’s uniform, Ann’s grandfather took his ring of keys from the top of the bureau and put them in his pants pocket. He carried the keys there, close against his body, reaching for them occasionally, his thumb and forefinger rubbing the medal of the Virgin Mary he hung on the ring for protection, until he came home again after his shift and put them on the bureau.

Those keys collected energy from every experience he had all through each day, compiling a virtual energy record of his life. They recorded the energy trail of his life, and of his passing. At his death, the keys were sealed in an envelope by Ann’s father and stored away by Ann’s grandmother, where they stayed until Ann found them. The envelope helped to contain the energy imprints the keys held. And each time Ann touched the keys, she experienced a different perception of her grandfather. Ann carries the keys with her now, and her grandfather’s energy walks with her.

Jewelry of emotional significance, particularly wedding rings, also stores significant energy. Part of this comes from the intensity of emotion of the jewelry’s first use, and part of it comes from the everyday contact the jewelry experiences. All the joy and sadness, success and disappointment, calm and outburst … these emotions that are the expressions of life become attached to possessions such as jewelry in the same way that electromagnetic energy becomes attached to an audiotape or a CD.

To replay a tape or a CD, you need a compatible machine. But to “replay” energy imprints, all you need is to tune into your psychic sensitivities! Holding your dad’s watch or your great-grandmother’s ring could bring forth a flood of energy experiences.

When Rita was in her first psychic development class, another student, a young man, brought a bottle cap. It was a simple, plain, Coors beer bottle cap. He asked for someone to psychometrize this. Two students tried and couldn’t get anything, and then the teacher handed the bottle cap to Rita. As she held the bottle cap in her hands, Rita saw a vision of being in the woods and then saw a very, very dark place with a pool of water in it. Although it embarrassed her to say the words out loud, she said to the young man and the class, “I see funny-looking men in yellow suits!”

Premonition

Many people with highly refined psychic or mediumistic abilities find it difficult to be around antiques. Antiques are often treasured family heirlooms, passed down through generations of family members. They can retain many energy imprints, which can present a flood of images and information to someone who is receptive.

The young man laughed. He had been up in the New Hampshire woods and had gone caving with his friends. They had gone into a cave that had a big pool of water inside. In the pool, left behind by other cavers, was a bottle of Coors chilling in the frigid water. The four young men shared the bottle and brought back the bottle cap. They were all wearing yellow neoprene suits!

Furnishings

Where do you spend the most time when you are in your home? You might say the living room or the kitchen or even the bedroom (as we spend a third of our lives sleeping). And none of these answers is wrong. But in truth, the most extensive interaction you have with your home is actually with your furnishings.

A good number of furnishings are nothing more than functional, of course. You use them and then put them at the curb for recycling or disposal after they wear out. Some furnishings, however, become family heirlooms. Through the years, they take on emotional and historical significance. The delicate china tea set a distant cousin carried home from a trip to the Far East … by sailing ship. The marble-top dressers that Great-Great-Grandfather Pete carved as a 14-year-old apprentice the year the American Civil War ended. And even the handprint of your daughter, from when she was three years old, now frozen in plaster of Paris and hanging in a frame on the wall.

The objects of our daily lives pick up considerable energy. How long and to what extent they hold depends on the object’s use and the number of people who use it. Debbie was in an antique store when she rested her hand lightly on top of a small table. Like a flash, she saw the image of a Victorian-era woman, dressed in a long, dark skirt and a white blouse with a high, buttoned collar and long sleeves. The woman’s dark hair was pulled back and wrapped around her head.

At first Debbie thought the vision was a spirit, but it remained still, like a photograph. When Debbie lifted her hand from the table, the image disappeared. When she touched the table again, this time in a slightly different place, the woman’s image reappeared. But this time she sat in a chair beside the table, holding some sewing or embroidery in her hands. Each time Debbie touched a different place on the table, a different image of the same woman appeared.

The shop’s proprietor noticed Debbie’s apparent interest in the table and told Debbie it had just come into the store earlier that week. The woman who had owned it had recently died. The family held an estate sale, and the table had been among the items that didn’t sell. It was a lovely piece that had been in the family for several generations, the proprietor said. The woman would sit for hours at the table, which was in front of her living room window, sewing or reading.

Fabric and Clothing

When a tracking dog is about to set out on a track, its handlers try to have it smell an item belonging to the missing person. An item of clothing, not washed since the person last wore it, is ideal, because it captures and holds the person’s scent. The more contact with the cloth, the stronger the scent signals that the dog can read. The dog then searches for matching signals, following them until the trail runs out or the dog finds the person.

Fabric can hold energy imprints for long periods of time, too, and for much longer than it holds a scent. Dresses, scarves, hats, and similar items that end up stored in trunks in attics for years and even decades hold tight to the energy imprints they’ve collected. Pull such an item from its sanctuary, and those imprints might seem to float out, just like dust.

In one of Rita’s classes that she teaches at the church, she asked her students to bring items to practice psychometry readings. One student brought his most treasured possession, a woolen New York Yankees baseball cap. He handed it to Rita and said, “Here, see what you get from this.”

Rita held the cap in her hands and felt the most incredible adrenaline rush of her life! She had the impression of being on the baseball diamond, looking out at the pitcher. Her heart was pounding and her hands were sweating. She described these responses to the student, who was tickled. The cap, he said, had belonged to a former New York Yankees catcher! What Rita “read” from the cap was the experience of the catcher, crouched behind the batter during the high excitement of a baseball game.

Bonnie came to see Rita at the First Spiritualist Church of Quincy in September 1995. During the sitting a drawing came through of her grandmother, Margaret. Bonnie recognized the face immediately, with delight. Two years later, in April 1997, Bonnie’s daughter Aileen came to Rita for a spirit drawing and the same woman wearing the same housedress appeared on the paper.

Picking Up the Trail

Psychics who work with police to find missing people read the energy imprints of objects connected to the missing person. These energy vibrations become a trail the psychic can follow, providing details about the person’s fate that police have been unable to determine based on physical evidence. Often, a psychic working in this capacity can hold an object from a crime scene and describe information about the person who committed the crime.

Silver Cord

Psychics have been involved in many famous crime investigations, including a 1940 case involving the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, and the disappearance of Patty Hearst and the search for victims of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy in the late 1970s.

Rita has been involved in a number of missing persons situations. In one, a 14-year-old girl had disappeared. A friend of the girl’s mother knew of Rita’s work and called Rita to see if she could help. The girl had been missing since Friday evening, and it was Sunday afternoon when Rita got the call.

The family feared the girl had been abducted. Her hairbrush was still on her dresser, and the girl never went anywhere without it. So Rita asked if she could hold the brush. As soon as she took the brush into her hands, Rita knew the girl was safe and fine. “She’s at a house just south of route 37, the house of somebody she knows,” Rita said. “I’m seeing three brick steps going up to the front door and a storm door with the initial ‘K’ or ‘R’ on it.”

Later that evening, Rita got a phone call. The girl had been found, safe and a little embarrassed, at the house of a friend—you guessed it—just south of route 37, with three brick steps going up to the front door and a “K” on the storm door! The girl had gone to spend the weekend with her friend, thinking her mother knew of the plans.

Pick Up the Vibes: Exercises to Develop Your Psychometry Skills

You have countless opportunities to practice and develop your psychometry skills. Here are two exercises to get you started. The first is a structured meditation; the second is an exercise of opportunity.

Exercise One: Reading Familiar Energy

For this exercise, you need the help of a friend. Ask the friend to bring a small object that he or she wears frequently, such as a watch, a piece of jewelry, or a scarf. Also ask your friend for permission to do an energy reading from this object. Don’t look at the object. Make yourself comfortable where you aren’t going to have interruptions, and ask your friend to join you.

1. Take three cleansing breaths, and ask that your energy meditation proceed in goodness and light, for the best intent.

2. Close your eyes and ask your friend to place the object in your palm. Feel its weight, its pressure against your skin. Feel whether the object is light or heavy, cool or warm, dense or soft. Is it metal? Is it wood? Is it fabric?

3. Without trying to create a mental picture of the object, let its image form in your mind. Be open to any perceptions that occur, including visual images, sounds, smells, or tastes.

4. If you know what the object is, set that knowledge aside. Focus on receiving the object’s energy. It might come to you in vignettes or flashes.

5. Describe to your friend what you’re receiving. Don’t attempt to filter or interpret the information in any way, just convey it.

6. If something about the energy imprint is unclear, form a question about it in your mind and wait for an answer. (It will come!)

7. When you feel the energy exchange is over, gently return to your normal state of consciousness. Become aware of your toes, your legs, your fingers, and your arms.

It’s most helpful to you in developing your psychometry skills if your friend is willing to discuss the possible meanings of the energy messages that you received through the object. But understand that he or she might not want to do this, if these messages have evoked unexpected emotions. Psychometry, like other energy reading, can reveal deep meanings. As you become more comfortable with reading energy in this way, you can try reading objects from people you don’t know quite as well.

Exercise Two: Reading Random Energy

As you go about the many activities of your daily life, look for opportunities to experience the energy imprints of objects around you. Although you won’t get much feedback to confirm the accuracy of your perceptions, this exercise helps you make psychometric skills part of your everyday life. Here are some examples:

• Hold an apple in your hand. What does it taste like?

• Go into an antique store. Touch the first object that catches your attention. What do you feel?

• In a music store, touch or hold an old instrument (if the proprietor allows you to). Can you hear music, or see the musician who once played it?

• Go to a used bookstore. Walk until you reach a shelf that compels you to stop. Pass your hand slowly in front of the books on the shelf. Take down the one that seems to draw your hand to it. What is the title? Who is the author? What is the topic? Do these have any significance for you? Open the book. What is the copyright? Is there anything about the book that has special meaning?

• Walk slowly through the exhibits at a history museum. Stop at the first display that compels you to look closer. What is the exhibit? What do you feel, hear, see, sense?

As you can see, the opportunities this exercise offers truly are unlimited!

Linking to Spirit Contact

Psychometry certainly has many applications in psychic contexts. But what about in spirit contact? Many mediums use psychometry to establish a link to a loved one on the higher side. Handling an object imbued with the loved one’s energy instantly signals other holders of the same energy—the loved one—to connect. It’s like a cosmic directory assistance!

The contact established using psychometry as its bridge can be especially powerful, and is very helpful when you want to contact a particular spirit entity. Often, this approach quickly establishes evidence of the continuity of life, because it transitions from the tangible world to the spirit world in a way that appears logical to us.

Sometimes the energy readings the medium gets from the object help direct questions the medium can ask of the spirit entity. This might provide direct information that you are seeking, or the information that you need to have (even if you don’t yet know that you need it).

Mediums and Messages

When Jeanette came to Rita for a spirit sitting, she brought a wedding ring with her. Rita took the ring and held it in her hands, and within moments a man came through. Rita described the man in full detail, including physical characteristics and personality. “That’s my father!” Jeanette said. Then Rita very clearly tasted chocolate-covered coconut and heard the father singing the commercial jingle, “Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don’t!” Rita asked the woman, “Did your father ever bring you Mounds candy bars?” The woman laughed. “Absolutely!” she said. Spirit will always trigger information that’s stored in your mind.

Spirit Presence or Residual Energy?

Places retain energy, too. Locations are just collections of objects; a house is walls, floors, stairs, and other surfaces that people contact all the time. In fact, much of what people perceive as “haunting” is really not spirit presence at all, but rather an energy imprint, also called residual energy, which captures and replays a significant event. Because such events typically have intense emotional connections, they are generally connected to a person (or people) and might have to do with some sort of trauma or tragedy.

It isn’t always easy to determine whether spirit presence is genuine or residual, because the same kinds of events can connect either to the physical world. Generally, an energy imprint doesn’t involve any kind of interaction. Its presentation might change so that you have a different perception of the energy experiences that are retained. An experienced medium can tell whether the energy is active or residual.

Rita was asked to visit a home that its owners, two adult sisters, believed was haunted. The sisters had not had pleasant childhoods in the house, and for many years as adults had been estranged from their parents. The women inherited the house after their mother and then father passed away, and they wanted to sell it. But every time they went into the house they were overcome with fear, and left without venturing much further than the vestibule.

As Rita walked into the house, all seemed calm enough with no evidence that the father’s spirit was present. Rita did detect distinctive energies. Among them was the energy of a mentally disabled great-aunt who had lived with the family for a time. Hers was a confused but benevolent presence. Rita and the sisters prayed to help the great-aunt find her way to the higher side, and her presence was gone.

As Rita continued walking through the house, she could feel the energy, sometimes intense, of childhood traumas the sisters had experienced at the hands of their abusive father. These traumas lingered as energy imprints that activated memories in the sisters. As soon as Rita explained this to the women, they immediately felt better. Knowing that there were no spirits remaining in the house, they were able to clean it out and sell it, and move on with their lives.

Trauma, of course, leaves intense energy behind. But not all intense energy is traumatic. Many homes are filled with energy imprints of the moments of joy and laughter that marked the lives of the families who lived there. You might step onto the lawn of an old home and suddenly hear shouts and giggles of children playing hide and seek, or see in your mind’s eye a yardful of tents made from bed sheets. Happiness leaves its imprints, too.

The Least You Need to Know

• Just about all objects have the capacity to retain energy.

• Objects with strong emotional meaning retain the most intense energy.

• “Reading” an object is a process of allowing its energy imprints to “replay” their messages for you.

• Places and locations can store energy imprints, which can sometimes be misinterpreted as spirit presence.

• Psychometry can be a powerful tool for establishing spirit contact.

Chapter 17

Dream Weaver

In This Chapter

• Your body’s need to dream

• Using dreams to understand your emotions and feelings

• Archetypes and the collective unconsciousness

• Keeping a dream journal

• Interacting with your dreams

• Asking spirits to visit your dreams

“I had the weirdest dream last night ….” This must be one of the most common morning greetings in the English language! It sets the stage for what you know is going to be a presentation of events that defy logical understanding. And yet it’s a phrase that intrigues us all, because we all have “weird” dreams. By listening to the dreams of others, we hope to learn more about what our dreams might mean—or at least to feel secure in knowing that everybody has dreams that don’t seem to make sense.

The dream state is a mysterious existence. Some say it is one that allows the soul to roam freely, unconfined by the parameters of reality as they define consciousness. When you dream about a loved one who has crossed over, could this in fact be a spirit visitation? The dream state also offers a natural doorway for spirit communication. The filters of your conscious mind are at rest, unable to block signals they otherwise would restrict or reinterpret. This leaves you receptive to the messages these signals might bring.

The Dream State

We talk about the dream state as if it’s a place we can go to, like we might think of going to California or New York. The journey holds the promise of exciting adventures that will take us beyond the realm of our everyday lives. It’s a little scary, sometimes, but we can calm our fears by reminding ourselves, “It’s just a dream ….”

What happens during the dream state? The earliest written records speak of dreams and their mysteries. In many cultures, ancient and modern, dreams sometimes represent visitations from the divine of your belief system. Some cultures believe that the soul leaves the body during dreaming to visit a special world in which it actually lives in dreams; to wake someone during a dream, according to this belief, is to risk severing the soul’s connection to the body. Modern psychology looks to dreams as providing insights into your concerns, worries, and fears.

From your body’s perspective, the dream state is as essential as sleep itself. There are two clear stages of sleep, REM and NREM, that cycle throughout the time you are asleep. Your body starts a sleep cycle by drifting off into NREM sleep, during which all physical functions become quiet and still. Not even your eyes move, which is why this is called the “no rapid eye movement” stage of sleep. About 90 minutes into NREM sleep, your brain suddenly wakes up—you are dreaming!

Spiritology

REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is the stage of sleep during which the eyes move rapidly and dreams take place. NREM (no rapid eye movement) is the stage of sleep during which there is little dreaming and no rapid eye movements.

During REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, your eyes move rapidly behind your closed eyelids, as though watching a movie. Although your body generally is still, your brain is as busy as when you are awake. Over the course of an eight-hour sleep, most people cycle through four or five REM stages. Each tends to be longer than the one preceding it. The first REM stage might last five to 10 minutes, while the last one can last an hour or longer. This is partly why you are more likely to remember the last dream of your sleep—it’s usually the longest, most detailed, and most vivid.

Sleep studies show that the REM stage of sleep is essential for your body to feel rested. This suggests that dreaming has a physiological importance; that is, your body needs not only to sleep but also to dream so that it can restore itself.

Clearing Your Brain: Data Dump

One theory about the importance of dreaming views dreams as “data dumps” for your brain. During your waking hours, your brain collects and processes a seemingly endless volume of information—stimuli from your physical senses, your thoughts, your emotions, the functions of your body. Your brain somehow processes everything you encounter while you are awake, even if you are unaware.

Because the vast majority of this collected content has no context, it doesn’t really qualify even as information. Your brain has no idea what to do with it, quite literally, and so it stores it away. When you begin to dream, the conscious parts of your brain that keep this data “behind the scenes” ease their control, and these fragments begin to float, as it were, into the parts of your brain that process thought. As you sleep, your brain then shapes these floating fragments into images that you perceive as dreams.

Within the framework of this theory, or viewpoint, there is nothing more to dreams than a discharge of electrical energy. Dreaming is a “clearing” of your brain’s circuitry, preparing it for the next day’s data collection. Rather like a computer’s hard drive, your brain collects and then discards data in a cycle tied to waking and sleeping.

Silver Cord

Studies in which researchers deprive volunteers of sleep, or interrupt sleep when EEG signals show the brain has entered the dream state, show the clear importance of dreaming to sleep. When sleep interruptions, disturbances, and deprivation that prevent dreaming continue over a period of days or weeks, the chemical balances of the brain change. This affects just about every function in your body, from heart rate to mood. When study volunteers are permitted to return to normal sleep and dream patterns, the chemical levels return to normal.

Working Out Your “Stuff”

From the framework of psychology, dreams allow you to experience and understand emotions and feelings that you don’t address during your waking hours. Within this context, the content of dreams takes on symbolism that is personal to you. By writing down your dreams or talking about them, you can begin to see the patterns of your personal symbols and relate them to events and emotions taking place in your life. In this framework of interpretation, dreams seldom mean what their images suggest.

What a Nightmare!

We’ve all had bad dreams, nightmares from which we wake up scared and shaking, sometimes not certain if we’re still dreaming. The content and images of nightmares also are symbolic, generally representing major fears or worries. Some cultures believe that dreams are an altered state of reality, and if you can work out your lessons in the dream state, you don’t need to work them out in the waking state. If you are afraid of an issue or person and can face your fears in the dream state, you don’t have to work them out when you are awake.

You might think of nightmares as the ultimate “working through.” We can interact with our dreams, making contact with the visions that appear there. Whenever something disturbing happens in a dream, you can immediately surround yourself with a “safety zone,” and remind your dreaming self that you are safe. Then you can question your “dream” actors as to their purpose in your nightmare and confront them if necessary. “I don’t want this to happen anymore. Stop! Tell me why you’re here!” You might be surprised at how effectively this ends the nightmare (and what answer you receive to your question!). If you can do this, you are working through your concerns. Rita’s husband has strict instructions not to wake her if she appears to be having a nightmare! If you aren’t used to interacting with your dreams, think about the issues upon waking, and the fearfulness of the dream will dissipate as you begin to analyze what happened in the dream. See more on interacting with your dreams later in this chapter.

Sigmund Freud and the “Royal Road to the Unconscious”

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), held that dreams revealed repressed desires (often sexual), and that dreams were the “royal road” to the inner sanctum of the unconscious mind. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1899, was a groundbreaking work that attempted to explain dreams in the context of waking experiences and unexpressed thoughts and wishes. Analyzing and interpreting one’s dreams, Freud believed, was the route to understanding one’s needs.

Carl Jung and the Archetype

Psychotherapist Carl Jung (1875-1961), initially a student of Freud, viewed dreams as the unconscious mind’s efforts to convey messages to the conscious mind, often by tapping into what Jung termed the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious, Jung said, is a vast repository of shared human experiences—all shared human experiences. Because of its vastness, we connect to it through universal symbols Jung called archetypes. Archetypes represent a range of interpretations; the key is identifying those that are relevant to you within the context of your life experiences.

Dreams, according to Jung, are a direct link to the collective unconscious. What we remember from the connection, upon waking, we perceive in the form of archetypes. As author James R. Lewis succinctly defines in his book The Dream Encyclopedia (Visible Ink Press, 1995), “archetypes … predispose us to unconsciously organize our personal experiences in certain ways. Archetypes are not concrete images in the collective unconscious. They are more like invisible magnetic fields that cause iron filings to arrange themselves according to certain patterns.”

Spiritology

The collective unconscious is the combined shared experiences of all humankind. An archetype is a pattern of images that represents a specific and universal realm of experience, such as the hero or the victim.

Archetypes are icons of human experience that you must then apply to the specifics of your life experiences. They might appear in dreams to explain past or current events, or to provide glimpses of the broader context of your life mission and your soul’s journey. Common archetypes and their representations include the following:

• Actor or acting a role, representing the parts of yourself that you present to others

• Anima/animus, representing the elements of the opposite sex that are present in you (feminine qualities in men, masculine qualities in women) and also how you view the opposite sex

• Four of anything including the number itself, representing stability, completion (such as in the cycle of the four seasons), wholeness

• Father, representing power, authority, responsibility, tradition, procreation

• Mother, representing life, love, caring, nurturing, creativity

• Old man, representing wisdom and forgiveness

• Old woman, representing the energy of life (through birth) and death

• Rebirth, representing repressed issues that are resurfacing or another chance to do or receive something you thought was lost

• Shadow, representing the dark side of your personality or the parts of yourself that you keep hidden (sometimes even from yourself)

Jung further connected dreams to mythology, observing that despite the many and varied mythologies of world cultures from ancient to modern times, common themes—in the form of archetypes—emerge that link them. He speculated that mythology represents the efforts of the conscious mind to organize the information received through dreams into structures (stories and belief systems). As universal symbols, archetypes permeate nearly all aspects of our modern culture, from character representations in movies, books, and even the comics to the symbolisms of astrology and Tarot.

Esmirelda, December 1989, oil on canvas. Rita asked to see the spirit guide who works with her when she reads Tarot cards. An old Gypsy woman revealed herself as Rita’s inspiration.

Archetypes in Spirit Communication

As symbolic representations, archetypes appear in spirit communication. Remember from earlier chapters that we’ve talked about developing your personal dictionary of symbols. Archetypes can help you understand the deeper meanings of some of these symbols by giving them a universal context.

Understanding Your Archetypes: An Exercise

Archetypes are useful only to the extent that you can connect the universal knowledge and understanding they represent with the events and circumstances of your own life. This representation can by physical, emotional, and spiritual. A technique called free association is a good method for gaining understanding about the archetypes and symbols that appear in your dreams as well as in spirit messages that you receive (directly or through a medium).

Free association is easy to do. Get some paper and a pen or pencil. Find a comfortable place to sit, where it is easy for you to write and where you won’t be distracted.

1. Choose one image from a dream. Write it at the top of a piece of paper.

2. Set a timer to give yourself a time limit—one to three minutes. This encourages you to work quickly, without giving your intellect an opportunity to interfere.

3. Write every word that the image you selected evokes. Do this without thinking about what you’re writing. The faster you do this, the more intuitive your responses. It doesn’t matter whether the words seem to be related to the image; just write them.

4. When the timer goes off, stop writing.

5. Look at the words that have put themselves on the paper. Do any of them instantly relate to the image? Do any of them seem so unrelated as to be far-fetched?

6. On another piece of paper, write some of the archetypes these words seem to represent. Under each archetype, list the words that relate.

7. What pattern do you see emerging? Sometimes this isn’t immediately obvious to you. You might need to journal, meditate, or otherwise ponder the archetypes, words, and images to make the connection.

8. If a pattern doesn’t appear, set the exercise—the word list and the archetype organization—aside for two weeks. Then come back to it, and see if you can recognize a pattern.

Spiritology

Free association is a process of saying or writing the first things that enter your mind when you think of a particular word or symbol.

Do this exercise regularly to build a foundation of understanding about what archetypes mean to you. Not every dream element has extended symbolic meaning, of course. Over time and with practice, you’ll come to easily identify those that do.

A Doorway to the Higher Side

The dream state is particularly conducive to spirit contact and spirit visitation. When you dream, your conscious mind eases its control over what you think and perceive, allowing you to be more open. This happens because the dream state is the closest to an altered state from waking consciousness that most of us achieve on a regular (daily!) basis. So it’s the easiest way for a spirit loved one to contact you. You might not know whether you’re dreaming; the dream may feel more real, more vivid than usual—as if it has actually happened. It’s common to see deceased loved ones and to receive messages from them in the dream state.

There are many times that a spirit will visit you in the dream state. There is a very different feeling when this happens than when you just dream about the person. It feels real, and it makes sense. Six months after Rita’s father passed, her daughter came running into her bedroom one night and said, “I was dreaming but I know I wasn’t dreaming, and Poppa was in my room.”

Silver Cord

Some people believe that the dream state is actually the soul’s opportunity to leave the physical body and travel as a spirit. It reconnects with cosmic energy, and exists in a discarnate state for the duration of its travels. Where does your spirit go? It’s hard to say, although meditation might reveal this to you.

Rita held her daughter, and asked her how Poppa was. Her daughter said he was fine. Rita asked, “Were you worried about him?” Her daughter replied that she was. Rita told her daughter, “You know, he probably just came to visit you to let you know he was okay, because you were so worried.” Her daughter smiled, gave Rita a hug, and went back to bed.

Inviting Spirit Visitation in Your Dreams

You can intentionally invite spirit entities to visit you in your dreams. If you have situations that you didn’t resolve with someone who has now passed to spirit, you can resolve them through visiting in spirit in the dream state. Or you can just reconnect with a loved one, for the joy of experiencing the connection again! The following exercise can help you initiate a dream visit with Spirit:

1. As you are beginning to fall asleep, set the intent that you are going to meet with a specific person in the dream state, in which a dream will play out the unresolved situation.

2. Permit yourself to go to sleep.

3. When you wake up, don’t worry about whether you remember the dream. Instead, focus on how you feel. Do you feel you’ve achieved resolution?

4. Ask a question about the situation and see how you feel. Your dream journal can help with this. If you still feel the situation is unresolved, try again the next night.

Joseph had problems with his father throughout his life. When his father passed to spirit, Joseph was afraid these problems would never be resolved and he was left with a feeling of need because there was unfinished business between them. So Joseph did this exercise. The first night he felt nothing. The next night he tried again, and this time was a little forceful in his intent.

Joseph said, “Dad, I’ve waited 39 years to speak to you. I want to speak to you tonight in the dream state.” The next morning, to Joseph’s surprise, when he tuned into the situation with his father he felt total peace. He didn’t remember the dream, but every time he thinks of his father now, he feels content.

When you wake up in the morning (or if you wake up during the night after a dream), write as much as you can remember about your dreams in your dream journal. Did you dream of the person you were thinking about when you fell asleep? Did it feel like you and this person were enjoying each other’s company?

Don’t be discouraged if you wake up and remember dreams that have nothing to do with the spirit loved one you hoped to contact, or if you remember nothing at all. Spirits, you recall, are not always willing or able to respond when we want them to. Just be patient, and keep trying.

Past Life Dreams

Your past lives are always part of you, and sometimes your dreams give you the opportunity to connect with them. Famed American psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) taught that when you are looking at a past life dream, the way you recognize it as such is that everything in it is in context. If you are dreaming that you’re walking down the street in 1840 in Kansas, you are not seeing a red Corvette drive by! The roads are dirt, not pavement. Clothes and surroundings are appropriate for the period; nothing is out of context.

Keeping a Dream Journal

Do you wake up from an intense dream and know, just know, its message is vitally important … then fall back asleep and remember very little in the morning? How frustrating! If you’re interested in exploring the meanings and messages of your dreams, you can’t rely on memory. You need to keep a dream journal.

A dream journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy, although many bookstores sell very nice dream journals and blank journals that you can use to record your dreams and your thoughts about them. A plain old spiral-bound notebook will do. You might want to keep a notepad and pen at your bedside so you can jot down dreams when you awaken from them, and later transfer the information to your dream journal. Use your dream journal to record …

• The details of your dreams as you remember them, without interpretation or filtering. Just describe the dream as it occurred, as best you can remember it.

• Your free association exercises for each dream. You can do these on separate paper and then transfer the information to your dream journal, or do them right in the journal.

• What is going on in your waking life—what’s happening at work, with your family, with your significant other.

• Your thoughts and ideas about what the archetypes and symbols of your dreams might mean in a common or universal context as well as in the context of your personal life.

• Any learnings or “ahas!” that you get as you work through a dream’s interpretation.

Keeping a dream journal gives you documentation of your dreams so that you can go back to look for common themes and symbols.

Silver Cord

Where do premonitionary dreams come from? Some believe your soul can read your Akashic record (see Chapter 5) during dreams, which gives access to all past and future information of your soul’s travels and experiences. When you return to a waking state, remnants of this access remain. When these fragments involve events that have not yet occurred in your physical existence, you interpret them as precognitive or premonitionary. This access is also how some people explain past life memories.

What Dreams Mean

Can a dream be, well, just a dream? Do all dreams have hidden meanings and messages? What about dreams that seem so literal they are like replays of the events of your day? Dreams often have multiple layers of meaning that extend from the literal to the symbolic. Sometimes a dream is just the events of your day, bubbling through your subconscious mind so they can break free and disperse. Other times, a dream brings you a specific message or insight.

Interpreting Symbolism

Symbolism is the language of dreams. Dreams, like thoughts, move in fluid images. There is no sense of time or the structure that time imposes. There are many books available on the subject of dream interpretation (Appendix B lists a few that can get you started).

Some symbols have common meanings (that may or may not be archetypes). Water, for example, often represents the emotions. It can also suggest significant change and transition (“sea change”). Dreams of death, dying, and being killed are common and frightening, but generally represent transformation and “letting go” of something that has been part of you or your life for a long time. Other times, dream symbols have particular meaning for you. You might always dream about driving on a highway that never turns, goes up, or goes down whenever you find yourself in a rut in your work or your life. The best way to identify your personal dream symbols is to keep a dream journal in which you record elements of your dreams and your thoughts about what they could represent or mean. Over time, patterns will emerge that will help you identify your unique dream symbols. Personal dream symbols often fit within archetypes or common dream symbols.

Here are some common dream symbols:

• Anchor—staying in one place

• Automobile—the means by which you move through life

• Baby—something new in your life

• Bed—intimacy

• Blanket—cover, hiding

• Bridge—connection, link, transition

• Climbing—struggle to overcome an obstacle

• Clothing—your persona (what you project to others), the physical body

• Death—renewal, end of one thing and beginning of another, transformation

• Elevator—change, ups and downs

• Flying—freedom and joy, rising above

• Gate—exit from one place or circumstance and entrance to another

• House—your spirit, your mind, your inner self

• Key—solution, answer

• Losing teeth—loss of control

• Naked—uncovered or exposed

• Trash—disorder and confusion in your life

• Wall—obstacle

Premonitions and Warnings

It’s unnerving to wake from a dream that a friend was in a car accident or that a fire swept through the apartment complex where your sister lives. Such events are within the realm of possibility, and indeed often appear as news stories. How do you know if these kinds of dreams reflect your fears and worries or are foretelling disaster?

The first step is to write about the dream and any surrounding circumstances that you can recall. Did you fall asleep with the television or radio on, perhaps listening to a news report of a car accident or an apartment building fire? Did you read about one in a newspaper or magazine earlier in the day, or even a few days ago? If so, it could be your worries at work that manipulate your dreams. Writing about why these events worry you can help you reach insight about them.

So many people dream of a disaster in the family and then it happens. It’s common to be afraid that the dream caused the disaster in some way or to just be frightened when you recognize that you’ve had a precognitive dream. Don’t be afraid! Spirit is trying to give you information so you can be strong for other family members, to make sure there is someone who will not be in shock and can take on the position of strength and leadership that coping with disaster requires.

If there don’t seem to be external influences, pull out your dream journal and look for other dreams like this, either in subject matter or symbolism. What were they? How are they similar and how are they different? Have you had premonitionary dreams before? If so, what does this dream have in common with those dreams?

In the end, it doesn’t hurt to call your friend and ask him to be especially careful when driving today, or to phone your sister to remind her to check the batteries in her smoke detectors. You might never know whether you helped avert a disaster, but you will feel better that you acted on a potential warning.

Interacting with Spirits in Your Dreams

Whether in spirit communication or situations you are trying to work through, you can consciously interact with your dreams to get more information from the dreams or to work out events, trauma, or situations with other people. Did you ever wake yourself up from a dream? Most people have. Earlier, we talked about working through issues in nightmares by surrounding yourself with a “safety zone” and then confronting the situation or person creating anxiety for you in the dream. You can do this with any dream that you’re curious about.

If you can wake yourself from dreams, then you can learn to consciously interact with the dream. Work up to this level of participation in your dreams by first writing your dreams down in your dream journal. Then, when you have a dream you are curious about, invite a “clarification” the next night when you go to sleep and see what dreams come to you. Eventually, you’ll be able to interact with the dream while it is occurring.

In a dream that is a spirit communication, allow yourself to interact with the visiting spirit as though you were in the same room—which, really, you are. If you have questions or seek information, ask. This is an ideal opportunity to try to work through lingering concerns or issues that you still might have with the person. You don’t always remember these interactions, although you will usually feel more calm about the issues after the dream takes place.

The Least You Need to Know

• Dreams rely on a language of symbolism, some of which is archetypal and some of which is personal.

• To interpret your dreams, you need to consider them in the broad context of what’s going on in your life.

• The dream state is an ideal environment for spirit visitation and communication.

• You can interact with your dreams to gain understanding and insight.

• When you receive a spirit visitation in the dream state the experience feels real and logical, unlike most dreams.

Part 5

Being: The Essence of Spirit

Even as you exist on the earth plane in a physical life, inhabiting a physical body, you remain connected to the energy of the spirit plane. This energy sustains you, is full of love, and is available to you whenever you need it.

Spirit energy is divine energy. As such, it links us all—on the earth plane and on the higher side—with the God of our understanding. Making connections across the border of physical existence gives you insights into your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and actions.

Chapter 18

The Healing Power of Spirit Energy

In This Chapter

• How you give and receive energy

• What your aura shows about you

• The energy healing of Reiki

• The energy healing of Spiritualism

• An exercise for self-healing

Life is a constant exchange of energy. You acquire energy from, and give energy to, others in your life—both on the earth plane and on the higher side. Sometimes this is intentional, as when you focus on sending healing energy to a loved one who is ill, or aiding someone you love in crossing over to the other side, or when you call on a friend to support you in a time of need.

But sometimes these energy exchanges are unintentional and unbalanced. You might give too much of yourself, literally, to others, leaving little for your own needs and growth. In such situations, energy healers can help restore your personal balance of energy.

Life as an Exchange of Energy

Every contact you have with other people, with other living things, is an exchange of energy. Sometimes this exchange is palpable. You feel a surge, almost like an electrical charge, when you shake the hand of a person who has an outgoing personality and great vigor, or the warmth of love surround you when you hug a loved one.

We “read” these energy exchanges, and use them both to communicate with and make assessments about each other. What do you notice about a couple that tells you they are deeply in love? They might walk along or sit together, holding hands, touching and sharing each other’s physical space so they appear to be more as one than as two. As you get near, you can feel the energy of their togetherness like you might feel the charged air beneath a high-tension power line. This is such wonderful energy that you might feel like walking past this couple again, just to connect with it!

Energy You Give to Others

You give energy to others nearly every moment of the day, in each interaction you have with someone else. When this process stays a fairly balanced give-and-take situation, you don’t notice much about it. You give and you receive, and your energy stays supportive of you physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

When the balance shifts to giving more than to receiving, you might feel tired, rundown, and edgy. Everyone around you wants, wants, wants. No one seems to care what you might want or need. This constant demand drains your energy, and it’s no longer sufficient to support your body, mind, and spirit.

Premonition

Beware the psychic vampires! These are the people—and everyone knows at least one—who draw energy from you the instant you are in contact. In person, over the phone, even by e-mail, the psychic vampire seems to “plug in” to you and drain you dry. You can protect yourself from these psychic suckers by visualizing yourself surrounded with white light.

You might start to see indications of this in your health and attitude. You could become more susceptible to the “office bug” and assorted minor ailments. You might find yourself clumsier than usual, and prone to small injuries as a result. It’s not that these problems are your fault. Rather, you’re not able to resist them.

You might even feel like your energy is being taken away from you, withdrawn from you, instead of you willingly giving it. We speak, sometimes, of people who “suck us dry.” These people have such intense needs that they draw energy from those around them but have little to give back to make the process an exchange.

Have you ever said, “I just can’t deal with this relationship anymore. It takes too much energy.” You might be thinking in terms of the work you put out to sustain the relationship, the amount of time you spend trying to manage your behaviors and emotions. But you’re also sensing a loss of energy, literally. It’s like the other person is a magnet, and every time you go near, it feels like little fragments of you go flying toward it.

Energy You Acquire from Others

Exchange is a process of giving and receiving. Just as you give your energy to others, you receive energy from others. The strongest, most positive, most supportive energy is love. When love thrives in any of its multiple dimensions, energy blossoms. It’s almost as though you can feel and watch your energy intensify.

Sometimes it sounds trite to talk of “the power of love.” From sonnets to rock songs, the phrase is everywhere. So much so, in fact, that the spell checker in your word processing program might identify it as a cliché and ask you if you want to change it! But love is the foundation of the universe’s energy, and its power is very real.

When you feel happy and good in the presence of someone else, you’re drawing from an energy based in love. It is this energy base, the energy of love, that heals. When you feel it, you know it. It recharges and replenishes you. It restores your sense of well-being and happiness. It makes you whole and unites all parts of your being.

Can you receive “bad” or negative energy from others? Certainly. This is the hallmark of what psychologists call dysfunctional relationships. No one really understands why, if we can choose the energy of love that we don’t. There are as many explanations for this as there are people. Sometimes this is baggage carried from other lives. Perhaps it’s related to your soul’s lesson in this life.

What’s more important than the “why” of such choices is the recognition that they are choices. You don’t have to accept negative energy from others! Not from anyone! Change is not always easy, but it is possible. And there’s plenty of positive energy—the power of love—out there to support you in choosing to refuse negative energy.

Bioenergy: Your Aura

Your aura is the energy field that surrounds your body. All living beings have auras—plants, animals, humans. Auras contain the energy of biological life. When spirit energy connects with yours, it does so through your aura. This is how spirit energy heals—it flows into your aura, replenishing and strengthening your personal energy. Your aura also acts to protect you. When you pray or meditate to connect with the God of your understanding, your aura enlarges. People who can see auras can see this happen.

Your True Colors

Auras appear as colors. If this seems odd to you, think about electrical storms. They often produce lightning of different colors depending on what other substances are in the air at the time they strike. Energy, when it takes a form that the human eye can detect, is quite colorful.

Silver Cord

During illness, there sometimes seems to be a hole in the aura or darkness in that area, or the aura can become weak in color and density. The aura’s color changes and may become muddy, but there is no particular color associated with illness. Aura can display manifestations of both physical and mental health problems.

The color of your aura provides clues about your physical, emotional, and spiritual states. The vibrancy of the color—whether it’s bold and vivid or subdued and flat—and the thickness of its layer influence the meaning of it. Color interpretations, like the symbolism of dreams, are general. What particular colors mean to you can vary.

The energy emission of your aura is very low range, beyond the range of normal vision. But with practice, you can learn to extend the reach of visual detection. (We have an exercise for you in the next section.) Here are common colors and their general meanings:

• Yellow. When vibrant, yellow represents success, intelligence, wisdom, and creativity. Dull yellow suggests selfishness and negativity.

• Red. When vibrant, red suggests sensuality and passion. Dull red suggests anger, fear, and anxiety. If you become angry during a conversation, your aura might show a spike of red, reflecting the intensity of emotion you’re feeling.

• Green. Green is related to healing and suggests balance and health.

• Blue. A blue aura says that you’re searching for spiritual information and answers. Light blue indicates that your quest is just beginning; dark blue suggests you’ve chosen the path you want to follow and you are now seeking enlightenment. Dull blue (dark or light) indicates self-righteousness.

• Purple. A purple aura suggests that you have high spiritual awareness and are broadly accepting of others. Purple indicates balance, patience, and helpfulness.

• Orange. You are likely friendly and open toward others when your aura is orange. Vivid, dark orange suggests ambition and drive.

• Pink. As you might suspect, pink relates to affection and love. A pink aura also suggests that you are calm, and have the ability to soothe and calm others.

• Brown. When your aura is brown, you are likely confused, discouraged, or frustrated. Brown tends to be a stress color, suggesting that things are out of balance in your life.

• Black. A black aura says your energy is being blocked. Some people do this intentionally, to protect themselves from energy vampires. Other times, a black or a very dark aura suggests negativity and depression.

• White. A white aura indicates intense energy and protection. Your aura might be white when you are meditating, praying, or intentionally giving energy to others.

Because your life is constantly changing, so is your aura. It changes with the physical and emotional changes that occur during your daily life. An aura that’s bright and vivid indicates that your health is good and your energy is strong. An aura that’s gray or neutralized shows someone in need. You can send healing energy to someone you know is in need. However, that person’s spirit (sometimes called higher being in the context of energy healing) decides whether to accept it. Although this is a process of choice, it’s not one that you participate in consciously. Similarly, if someone sends you healing energy, your spirit determines whether to accept it. This is another way that your energy protects you.

Silver Cord

An aura camera doesn’t really capture your energy, although the images it produces can be stunning. Rather, it uses infrared film to record the heat you are generating. The more heat is present, the more vivid the colors.

Explore Your Aura: An Exercise

Do you want to see your own aura? It’s easy to do, and you can do it alone! All you need is a white or black (preferred) nonreflective surface, such as a piece of poster board, a darkened room, and a candle.

1. Put the candle in the center of the room and light it. It should be the only light in the room.

2. Standing with the candlelight behind you, hold your hand in front of the nonreflective surface, about 10 to 12 inches away. Focus on your hand. You’ll soon see energy appear around it, like a halo.

3. Now, prop the nonreflective surface against the wall so that you can hold both hands together. Hold your hands as if you’re holding a ball of energy and sending healing between them. You can actually see energy move back and forth between your two hands.

If another person is present, you can have that person stand in front of the nonreflective surface (which must be large enough to function as a screen). What colors do you see around this person?

The Aura and Healing

Seymon Kirlian, the Russian electrician and inventor now famous for the form of photography that bears his name (we introduced Kirlian and his work in Chapter 16), discovered that the auras of health and illness have distinct illuminations. Diseased leaves projected differently when photographed than healthy leaves of the same species. Even though the leaf itself appeared healthy, the leaf’s aura showed that it had already been infected.

Although Kirlian was certainly not the first person to explore the correlation between energy and illness, he was the first to provide evidence of it. This was a significant discovery step in understanding as well as validating energy healing.

A predecessor of Kirlian, Walter J. Kilner, invented a special lens through which the aura becomes visible. Called a dicyanin screen, the device filters light rays to make the very low spectrum rays of the aura more easily visible to the human eye.

Energy Healing

Energy healing works through spirit chemists, spirit physicians, and other healers to heal someone on the earth plane physically, emotionally, and spiritually. A spirit chemist is a spirit guide that works through healing to change the biochemistry within the body. A spirit physician is a spirit guide that works like a physician on the earth plane might. Certain people who do healing have “specialist” spirit guides. A healer might have a “bone specialist” spirit guide, and so the healing related to bone problems is especially effective.

Energy healing makes a profound difference in people. The changes are physical, emotional, and spiritual—you need all three for healing to happen. It’s also essential to release any anger that you’re holding. Holding onto anger creates a constant cause and effect—you send out negative energy and so it returns to you. The result is dysfunction of some sort.

Energy healing is not about making everything better; it is about reaching your highest and best. Sometimes the outcome isn’t quite what you might expect. Rita once worked as a psychologist with troubled adolescents. A boy told her something he was going to do to break the law and asked her to pray for him. She told him if she did so, he would be caught and arrested, because this would be the highest and best outcome for him. He did go out to do it, and he did get arrested! He ended up going to jail, but then managed to turn his life around and is now doing fine.

Although there are numerous specialized forms of energy healing, all people have the ability to do energy healing. As always, it’s essential to begin with setting your intent for the highest good for the other person, and to conclude with thanks to your spirit guides and the God of your understanding.

Hands-On Focus: Reiki

Reiki is an ancient system of hands-on energy healing. The word means “universal energy.” Reiki originated in Buddhist practices in ancient India, then was lost for several centuries. It resurfaced in Japan in the 1800s. In contemporary Reiki practice, there are four levels of practitioner identified as level 1, level 2, level 3, and master.

Reiki treatment involves having a Reiki practitioner place his or her hands on your body so that the energy passing through them activates the energy in the body part that is hurt or diseased. The premise is similar to that of acupuncture: to restore the flow of energy. As you feel the energy that the Reiki practitioner is guiding through your body, you talk about the images that appear in your head. This releases trapped energy, and allows the natural flow to resume.

In the United States, Reiki therapy is often combined with psychotherapy. The Reiki practitioner is also a trained psychologist or therapist. As with all forms of energy healing, the outcome can be quite profound.

Premonition

Energy healing is not a substitute for conventional medical care! If you are sick or injured, always see the appropriate health care practitioner for diagnosis and treatment. Energy healing works to supplement all other forms of healing, not replace them.

Spiritualist Healing

Energy healing is a fundamental element of Spiritualism, which believes that healing is part of all spirit contact and communication. Each service includes healing, as do most circles. During healing, the medium or leader asks healing spirit guides to come close. Each healer also asks his or her specific spirit guide healers to come close.

In the Spiritualist church service, members of the church who are known to have strong healing abilities are invited to stand behind chairs designated as healing chairs, to direct energy to people in need. The person who comes up to sit in the chair receives the directed healing.

The healer lightly touches the head and shoulders of the person in the chair, to let the healing energy flow into them. The prevailing thought about this is that the energy is “intelligent” and will go to where the person needs it. The person receiving healing should relax, and release anything that he or she is holding onto that is no longer needed. When the healing session is finished, the healer gently brushes the shoulders to clear the space.

Mediums and Messages

Intent matters! There was a man in Rita’s congregation who was told by a medium (not Rita) that he would be taking a healing chair and meet the love of his life by standing behind the chair. So every Sunday he would stand behind the chair hoping he would meet the love of his life. Although he was a good healer, he did not fulfill the promised message. He came to Rita in frustration, and she explained to him that his intent should be to heal, not to meet a partner. The intent of healing is to help the other person. And who knows, maybe the love of this man’s life is healing!

Rita knows what it’s like to be on both sides of the healing chair. As a Spiritualist minister, she regularly conducts healings. In the fall of 1996, Rita neared completion of chemotherapy for breast cancer. The chemotherapy left her feeling very sick and drained. She felt so sick during the church service that she asked someone else to drive her home after the service. Rita came to a healing chair and her friend and mentor, Bob Miller, stood behind it.

Bob lightly touched Rita’s shoulders, and then raised his hands above her. She felt like an enormous vacuum was sucking everything out of her. Then another member of the church came forward and added healing energy … and then other healers did the same, one after the other, adding the energies and resources of their spirit guides to the healing.

“I felt like all of the love in the universe came into me,” Rita says about the experience. At the end of the service, Rita’s nausea and tiredness disappeared. She no longer felt weakened from her cancer treatments. In fact, the following day she put in a full day’s work. (Rita is now cancer-free.)

What people experience during spirit healing ranges from feeling very calm to feeling better either immediately or after some time. Spirit healing can’t and isn’t meant to heal everything; the purpose is always for the highest and the best. There are spiritual lessons in illness, and many things that we don’t understand. We are sometimes volunteers for people around us to learn their lessons. We don’t always know the divine purpose of a particular situation; this is beyond our capacity.

Lorie came to Rita for a sitting and drawing at the First Spiritualist Church of Quincy. Her stepmother, Janice, came through. Lorie had been close to her stepmother and Janice kept reporting herself to Rita as mother vibration. Janice has come through in spirit drawings for different family members, appearing for each person at different stages of her life. For Lorie, the image is of Janice when she was already ill and the resemblance is striking.

Joey was his mother’s favorite, so there was no surprise when she came through wearing the flowered dress she wore to his wedding.

Absent Healing

Absent healing is healing energy you send to someone who doesn’t necessarily know that you’re sending healing to them. You might offer healing prayers for a friend who’s sick. You might do a healing meditation for the cashier at the grocery store or the mail carrier after hearing that the person is having surgery. There are dozens of times every day that you learn of or encounter people who need healing.

Rita had many powerful experiences in her work as a counselor to troubled adolescent boys. One evening, someone broke into her office and stole, among other things, her leather jacket. It was a cold night, and Rita had to walk to her car without a coat. She was aggravated, and on the drive home she vented to her spirit guides.

“What do I do about this?” she asked. “How do I deal with these boys?” In answer she heard, “Send them healing.” She said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” But she got the message again, so that’s what she did. When Rita got to work the next morning, her jacket had been returned! It was the first time in the facility’s history that stolen property had been returned, although thefts were quite common. There’s no doubt in Rita’s mind that the reason it came back was because she sent the healing. Take a look back to Chapter 12 and take another look at Rita’s painting, We Worked So Hard, which depicts the spirit she believes led her to this challenging but fulfilling work with troubled youth.

Maintaining Energy Balance

When you use your own energy for healing, you’re using magnetic energy. This is a powerful source, but it quickly depletes. When you send healing to others, learn to use universal energy rather than your own energy. Here’s how a Native American healer taught Rita to draw energy through, rather than from herself:

• Visualize the opening of your crown chakra and invite in energy from Father God.

• Visualize the energy from Mother Earth coming in through the soles of your feet.

• Allow these energies in your heart chakra—Father God, Mother Earth—and send the energy out through the palms of your hands.

Remember, healing is always about love, with the highest and best intent. You can recharge depleted energy by raising your left hand, which is the receiving hand, palm upward. Concentrate on allowing the energy of the universe to flow into you through your palm, letting it recharge and revitalize you.

Grief is very real. Inasmuch as we know that life continues on, the feeling of loss can be overwhelming. Even for mediums who can stay in touch with their loved ones quite easily, the loss of a loved one brings tangible pain. This pain needs to be healed. Give yourself the time and the space to feel your emotions. Allow yourself to go through the full process of grieving. If you’re having difficulty coping with your grief, seek professional help from a grief counselor or psychotherapist.

The Lessons of Healing

Rita prepared to display some of her paintings in a studio show. She rushed around the gallery space, trying to make sure everything hung in its place. She still needed to place some of her art, and time was running short. Hurrying down the stairs, she missed a step and twisted her ankle. Ow! She crumpled in a heap on the stairs. Her ankle hurt, but more than anything she felt somewhat panicked. This was not a time she could afford to be hobbled by an injury—she had work to do!

She lay there for a few minutes, mentally crying, “Why me? Why now?” This, of course, did little to make her ankle feel better. Finally she said to herself, “What’s going on here? Why have I created this in my life?” She put her hands on her ankle and directed energy to it, just as if she were healing someone else. Then she said, “What do I need to learn from this? To stop rushing around so much?!” She forgave herself for creating the situation that allowed her to injure herself, and continued directing energy to her ankle. After about 20 minutes, Rita stood up and walked slowly down the rest of the steps. Within two hours all of the swelling was gone and she could walk easily.

Premonition

People sometimes want to separate medical and spiritual, but really they remain connected. Doctors are spirits, too, and medicine is spiritual. It’s important to see it as a whole experience. Healing is only part of the process; seeing a medical doctor and getting treatment is also part of the process, and the two must be combined.

This isn’t to say that injury and illness are consequences of your doing. They are not. This is not a process of placing blame. Rather, it’s a process of looking at the events that happen and trying to figure out what lessons they hold and how to make the best of them. No one wishes for cancer or a heart attack. But when these situations of crisis occur, they can become pivotal points in your life. You are the creator of your path through this life, and part of your mission is to find your way around the obstacles that are blocking your way.

As actor Michael J. Fox explains on the flap copy of his best-selling memoir, Lucky Man (Hyperion, 2002), he would not trade his experience with Parkinson’s disease even if given the opportunity to wave a magic wand and erase it all. Living and coping daily with the tough challenges of Parkinson’s, for Michael J. Fox and for millions of others, can be transformed into a life path of spiritual growth and rich experience.

Self-Healing: An Exercise

One of the most powerful aspects of energy healing is that you can do it for yourself. Try this exercise:

1. Begin by setting your intent and asking for light and love to surround the healing.

2. If you can touch the part of your body that needs healing, lay your hands on it. If you can’t reach it, visualize it. You can also focus on an emotional or relationship problem.

3. Ask the God of your understanding to send love and light to the part of your body or to the situation. Ask what you need to learn from this problem.

4. Forgive yourself, forgive others, and bless the process you’ve just gone through (including the problem for which you’ve asked for healing).

You don’t have to like whatever problem it is that you have, but blessing it is important because this says that you understand its purpose in your life and that you accept it. Self-healing can be very profound.

Drawing Energy from Beyond

The universe is a generous, abundant, giving source. All that you need is yours for the asking. The trouble is, most of the time we either don’t know what we need or forget that we need to ask for it. The energy of the universe is always available to help you, in many and diverse ways. If you want to make changes in your life, put your intent out to the universe. What comes back might surprise and delight you.

As Rita says, “Ask, and the universe will provide!”

The Least You Need to Know

• Energy is a very powerful healing force.

• Energy healing works with and complements conventional medical treatment, but isn’t intended to replace it.

• You have the ability to send healing energy to others and to yourself.

• Healing takes place on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.

• The energy of the universe is yours for the asking!

Chapter 19

Everything Is Spirit, Spirit Is Everywhere

In This Chapter

• Indigenous cultures and their spirit connections

• The value of ritual and ceremony

• Exploring the spirit energy of the earth

• Meeting your power animals: a guided meditation

• The healing power of plant energy

• Keeping spirit strong

Many cultures around the world infuse their physical environments with the life and animation of the spirit world. Spirit is energy, spirit is everywhere, and spirit energy is supportive and healing. These cultures honor not only the spirits of those who have passed on, but also the spirit of the earth itself.

A number of the practices and rituals of these cultures are finding their way into everyday life for many people. Aromatherapy and flower essences use the energy and spirit of plants for healing. Crystals carry the energy of the earth itself, a powerful and supportive force alone as well as in combination with other energy forms.

Of the Land: Indigenous Beliefs

In the beginning of human existence, everyone had a close and intimate relationship with the environment. The land supported life. Survival meant connecting with the cycles of nature: day and night, the four seasons, planting and harvest, birth and death.

Early cultures moved to follow the cycles, trying to keep pace with those that meant life and those that spelled certain doom. Over time and as tribes grew in numbers, moving every few months became impractical. Large groups became easy targets for predators, and made it difficult for the group to respond quickly to environmental changes.

To keep up with the changing bounty of the earth, some tribe members continued in nomadic ways while the rest settled in a location where the land provided fairly steady support—shelter, water, limited food. Those who stayed behind learned to harvest and lay in crops, saving for the lean times when darkness exceeded light and the earth showed few signs of life.

The hunters—those who left the group to follow their food sources—shadowed migratory herds for hundreds of miles. They learned that the further from home the kill was, the harder they had to work to get the meat, bones, and hides back to the tribe. So they learned to direct the migratory flow, keeping it closer to the home tribe.

For centuries, people lived according to these patterns. They learned to appreciate, as their forebears had, and to be thankful for the earth’s riches. They identified the energy of the focal points of their celebrations as spirits representing Mother Earth, Father Sky, the birds, the trees, the grasses, the water. Every element had its energy, and every element had its spirit. And they began to formalize their gratitude through song, dance, and ceremony.

These celebrations became the mythology of humankind that carries forward to modern times in many forms and practices.

Native American Spirit Traditions

As the indigenous culture of North America, Native Americans have always honored the spirit energy of the world around them. Rather than controlling the physical environment, the Native American belief is that we are here to take care of the environment, to take care of the earth and the bounty it supplies to make life possible.

Within most Native American belief systems, life is seamless, existing across time and space. Those who have passed to spirit simply exist in a different form than those who have physical bodies. Rituals and ceremonies emphasize the connections between the earth plane and the spirit world, and communication between the two is ongoing.

Silver Cord

Native American cultures honor the grandfather spirit, and many times even refer to God as Grandfather Spirit. Grandfather Spirit is wisdom, strength, and courage. Grandmother Spirit is also wisdom, but as the wise nurturer.

Mayan Spirit Traditions

Many ancient Mayan cultures believed that the dead descended into the Underworld. There was no death, really, just a relocation to this setting. There, they inhabited one of nine Underworld levels. This was similar to the belief systems of other cultures of the same time period, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans.

One Mayan tribe, la Candones, held a belief system that was somewhat different and closer, at least in context, to the Western concept of heaven. The la Candones people believed that rather than descending to the Underworld the dead ascended to a place, similar to the land they inhabited on earth, where they then lived forever without wanting for anything. There was no need to work; everything necessary for a pleasant and worry-free existence was provided. The distinction between this belief and heaven is that there was no concept of needing to “earn” passage to this ethereal land. Everyone went there after death, not just those deemed deserving.

African Spirit Traditions

The indigenous cultures of Africa are varied and diverse. However, their belief systems share a number of common characteristics. These include the following:

• Belief in a higher being or God that exists beyond the realm of humankind’s understanding, who is nonetheless able to appear to the people as a visible entity.

• A God that is genderless, although often appears as both male and female.

• Spiritual powers associated with objects and beings (animals, plants, other people) of daily life.

Spiritology

A cosmology is a culture-specific description of the origin and structure of the universe. It typically includes explanations of creation, the nature and roles of men and women, and concepts related to death and the dead.

• Many levels of spirits linked to elements of the natural environment, such as spirits of the river, spirits of the air, and spirits of the earth itself.

• Spirit visitors were often those spirit entities, usually ancestors, who acquired divine energy upon passing and can help their relatives on the earth plane.

• A cosmology that documents a tribe’s origins and path to its current existence, presented in the context of myths, legends, and riddles.

Ritual, Ceremony, and Tradition

Rituals are formalized actions that we repeat, with certain significance, in conjunction with specific events or situations. Ceremonies incorporate rituals into celebrations. A ceremony often contains multiple rituals. The wedding ceremony, for example, includes the rituals of exchanging vows and rings.

When these celebrations become ingrained in the community culture, they become tradition. We inherit them, and participate in them sometimes without fully understanding why but just because they’re how we do things. At weddings, we toss rice at the bride and groom as they leave the church. Why? You get 10 points if you know! No? Rice is showered upon newlyweds as a symbol of fertility.

Such symbolic practices fill our lives. They connect the small events of our daily lives with the bigger picture of how we fit in the universe. Tradition dictates how we honor passages from birth through death. Birthdays celebrate the day of entry into physical life, and the countdown to the day of departure, as yet unknown. They remind us that we are all connected to a greater energy, the energy from which we come, in which we exist, and to which we return.

Ritual and ceremony can also establish energy connections, such as for spirit contact. When you set your intent for spirit communication to come for the highest and the best, you’re “tuning” the energy of your connection to support this. Prayer, meditation, and other focused practices accomplish similar purpose.

Rites of Passage

The vision quest is integral to many cultures that hold a deep connection to the earth. In such cultures, like many aboriginal tribes of Australia and Native American tribes, spirit guidance is an essential part of the rite of passage to adulthood.

In Western cultures, external events such as obtaining a driver’s license and reaching legal age of consent (or drinking alcohol) are the hallmarks of the transition from child to adult. In many indigenous cultures, however, becoming an adult means demonstrating that you have reached maturity physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Physical maturation is apparent. Emotional maturation reflects in attitudes and behaviors. Spiritual maturation occurs when the young person has the adult experience of connecting with his or her spirit heritage and with the spirit energy of the earth. Only when young people connect with their spirit origins and ancestors are they fully able to take their places as adults within their communities.

On the typical vision quest, one goal is for you to meet and identify your power animal—an animal spirit with special traits or characteristics that represent attributes or qualities that you have or need. Power animals are deeply symbolic. As the quest gets underway, you begin to see signs and indications that, as they accumulate, point toward a particular animal. As you start out, you might see a crow fly across your path, a squirrel run up a pine tree at the edge of the woods, and a rabbit bound off into the underbrush. Which might be your power animal? At this point, any … or none.

Over the span of your vision quest, other animals or representations of them appear. After a time, one stands out and your attention focuses on this animal. And at some point, there’s an encounter—such as through a vision or a dream—in which you know that this is your power animal, and the animal’s spirit tells you why. (See the later “Power Animal Journey: A Guided Meditation” section for another way to identify and meet your power animal.)

Shaman Soul Release

Shamanism is an earth-based religion, meaning that it’s integrated with its environment. It’s quite complex, and we’re just going to briefly talk about a small portion of Shamanism, soul release (also called soul retrieval). Shamanistic belief systems hold that as we go through our lives and are traumatized in various ways, we lose little bits of ourselves. This depletes personal energy, causing physical, emotional, and spiritual problems.

Shamans, through guided meditation, help you to identify what those missing parts are and bring them back. This lets you experience the healing that takes place when that essence of you comes back. In some ways, the process is similar to Western psychology’s inner child work, or therapy to reconnect with and bring back your inner child, the parts of you that you’ve lost. Most of us have been told throughout our lives that there are things we can’t do, which is trauma. So we lose those parts—creativity, musical ability, whatever. Through psychotherapy that sometimes includes hypnosis, you reconnect with these parts of yourself to restore your sense of wholeness and balance.

Shaman soul release helps you find and bring back missing spirit, or energy, elements. The shaman leads you in a very light meditative state, from which you can then identify what’s bothering you. You make this identification, not the shaman. Say that you have pain in your neck. In this light, altered state, you go inside of yourself, so to speak, to look at this pain. You might touch it or determine who or what it is. Then you ask your spirit guides to take it away and replace it with healing light. This last part is very important for restoring the balance of your energy; you can’t just take away some energy without putting some back to fill the void.

Earth Energy

The earth itself is a tremendous source of energy. Magnets, gemstones, and crystals carry the earth’s energy, which has many applications in conventional as well as spirit healing. And of course, earth energy supports all other energy on the earth plane.

Silver Cord

Because of their capability to store, amplify, and transfer energy, crystals have many applications in modern science. Crystals made the first radio transmissions possible, for example. Today crystals appear in everything from the liquid crystal display on your watch to sophisticated medical imaging technology.

Animal Energy

Animals contain great spirit energy. In many indigenous cultures, animal spirits represent the connection between the earth and the divine. The spirits of certain animals have special significance. Native American tribes had animal spirit guides that helped them in nearly all functions of daily life.

These beliefs carry over into modern life in many ways. The United States has the bald eagle as its official symbol, which represents power and grace. Golfing fans know the great American golfer Jack Nicklaus as the golden bear. Fast cars are mustangs, jaguars, and cougars.

Power Animals

Like spirit guides, power animals bring special energy connections to your life. And like spirit guides from the higher side, your power animals change according to your needs (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and what is going on in your life. Power animals are also called totem animals or just totems. A totem is an emblem or a symbol that has spiritual significance.

Any animal can be a power animal; each animal has particular traits and characteristics. When this animal is your power animal, it shares these attributes with you to give you the energy they provide. When you are learning something, such as when you are in school, your power animal might be an owl for wisdom. If you feel someone is threatening your child or your family, perhaps you draw from the energy of the bear. When you are working creatively, such as writing or painting, the power animal supporting you might be a spider or a crow.

You don’t choose your power animals. They choose you. Familiar power animals such as bears, wolves, and owls have become almost archetypal in their representations of certain attributes:

• Ant—teamwork, patience, focused action

• Armadillo—safety, protection

• Bear—power, strength, healing, protectiveness

• Beaver—determination, productivity, persistence

• Buffalo—abundance, the natural order of things

• Butterfly—change, metamorphosis, transformation, joy, freedom

• Crow—spiritual strength, creativity

• Dove—peace, calmness, unity

• Dragonfly—carefree, good luck

• Eagle—vision, strength, flight, divine

• Elephant—strength, power, royalty, family

• Frog—cleansing, rebirth, transformation

• Hawk—guide, vision

• Lion—intuition, imagination, family, courage

Silver Cord

A totem pole is a tradition specific to the Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Carved from a cedar tree, a totem pole contains the images or representations of the power animals important to a family group or clan. It serves to identify the group’s history and heritage, told through the symbolism of the totems carved into the pole.

• Owl—wisdom, seeing what others can’t

• Peacock—immortality, pride

• Salmon—pride, intensity

• Snake—rebirth, change, healing, shrewdness

• Spider—creativity, fate

• Turtle—steady, loyal, protected

Power Animal Journey: A Guided Meditation

Rita’s good friend Martha Tierney wrote the following guided meditation for meeting your power animals especially for this book. A certified metaphysical hypnotherapist and spirit-trained shamanic facilitator, Martha maintains a private practice in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information about Martha and her practice, you can go to her website at www.marthatierney.com. Thanks, Martha!

We recommend that you read this guided meditation into a tape recorder, so you can listen and follow its suggestions. If you don’t want to listen to your own voice, ask someone whose voice you find soothing and calming to record it for you.

To prepare for listening to your tape and the journey it will take you on, follow these tips:

• Be sure that you will not be disturbed during this process (turn the phone ringer down or off, or unplug the phone).

• Dim the lights.

Premonition

Do not listen to your “Power Animal Journey” tape while driving a car, operating heavy equipment, or doing anything else that requires your full attention. This guided meditation will affect and alter your perceptions.

• Put on some background music: Soothing or patterned drumming music (for journeying) can assist in altering your state of consciousness/ awareness.

• Begin to slow your breathing.

• Choose a sitting position; this will likely keep you more focused and awake.

• Make sure your posture is straight and that you’re not feeling restricted in any way—get comfortable.

Here is the guided meditation. Read it through a couple times, so it’s familiar and you can read it smoothly. Where you see <pause>, pause for two or three seconds and then continue. This might seem awkward while you’re doing the reading, but when you’re listening to the tape it gives you time to follow the suggestion. Read in a steady, calm voice.

Continue to focus upon your slow <pause>
comfortable <pause>
breathing <pause>
allowing yourself to drop your shoulders <pause>
and warmly relax your back <pause>
you may begin to relax your body starting at the top of your head <pause>
relaxing your scalp <pause>
forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth <pause>
letting your cheeks and jaw relax and drop your jaw slightly
resting your tongue naturally, at the top of your mouth, and behind your front teeth
<pause>

Feel how relaxed you are from your throat, up through your head, to the top of your
scalp <pause>
so relaxed <pause>
and continue on down <pause>
relaxing the throat <pause>
warming and relaxing your shoulders, arms, and hands <pause>
noticing how wonderful you feel as you continue to release all inner tension from the
top of your head, right down through to your shoulders and arms <pause>
bring your attention to your chest <pause>
allow yourself to let go of all of today’s stress, simply let it melt away <pause>
freeing you to relax so much more than before <pause>
and with every breath <pause>
you are able to release all of today’s unhealthy tension that you may have held within
your body <pause>
as you relax your waist, your organs, colon and genitals <pause>
warming and relaxing your pelvis <pause> your hips <pause>
and as you move down through your thighs <pause>
the front and the back of your knees feel so much more relaxed <pause>
as you continue to release the day’s tension <pause>
relaxing your calves, the muscles supporting your chins <pause>
your ankles are relaxed, you may rotate them if you wish <pause>
and the warmth of relaxation
continues on down through the arches of your feet <pause>
the soles of your feet, and on down into each toe.

Check your body and see if there is any tension still left,
and if there is, simply release it by warming it with your intention. That’s right, let it
go <long pause>

Now try to imagine your relaxed energy growing out from of the bottoms of your
feet, like a tree growing roots, into Mother Earth <pause>
your roots can be as straight or windy as you wish <pause>
and as deep or shallow as you wish <pause>
allow yourself a moment to feel the energy of love and balance <pause>
touching <pause> nourishing <pause> your lovely roots <pause>

Bringing your attention to the top of your head, allow your relaxed energy to reach
toward Father Sky <pause> feeling the warmth of the sun relaxing you <pause> nourishing
you <pause>

and when you feel you have touched upon the right area of Father Sky bring that
wonderful loving feeling down into the crown of your head down through your body
<pause> washing away any worry <pause> any tension or discomfort <pause>

if you wish you may allow Father Sky to meet and blend with Mother Earth within
you <pause>
and as you do <pause>
feel how radiant and beautiful you feel <pause>
let this energy of healing love continue to feed and nourish your body, mind, and
spirit <pause>
as you allow yourself to imagine yourself in a calm sacred space <pause>
it can be somewhere you’ve been before <pause>
or somewhere you discover here today <pause>
that’s right, allow yourself to travel anywhere you wish <pause>
as you begin to get comfortable in your nice safe <pause> calm <pause> sacred space.

A space that is all yours right now <pause> a place where no one will interrupt you.

Relax in your nice spot and feel the beauty that surrounds you <pause>
take a moment to smell the air <pause>
feel the warm gentle winds upon your face <pause>
there may be sounds of nature around you <pause>
maybe there is a babbling brook nearby that you can hear,
or a bird singing its song to his mate <pause>
whatever you wish here is fine <pause>
for this is your sacred spot in the universe.

As you continue to feel the energy of nature all around you, supporting you <pause>
this is your time to journey to meet with your Power Animal <pause>

He or she will come to you to guide you <pause>
and protect you <pause>
he or she will become a companion to you and you a companion to him or her
<pause>

It can be any animal you feel comfortable with at this time <pause>
off in the distance you see an animal moving slowly toward you <pause>
if you wish you may move forward to meet them on their way <pause>

If, for any reason <pause>
you do not feel right with the first animal you see <pause>
there will be another one who comes along <pause>
to greet you <pause>

as the two of you meet, just take a moment to sense one another <long pause>
you may communicate with one another simply with your thoughts <long pause>
you will and do understand one another easily <pause>
if you feel ready and you would like to extend yourself in friendship at this time,
you may <long pause>
perhaps you would like to walk, or fly, or swim with your new friend, to get to know
how he or she lives, go ahead <long pause>
you may relax with your friend <pause>
or play with your friend <pause>
or explore with your friend <pause>

take the time you wish together, for a few moments <pause>
when it is time, I will call you back <pause>

<three-minute pause>

The two of you will have a uniquely personal relationship together <pause>
a relationship of reciprocity <pause>
you may visit one another at any time you wish simply by calling to one another
<pause>

<one-minute pause>
It is time to take your leave now <pause>
give thanks to your new friend <pause>
give thanks to Great Spirit for this wonderful experience with your Power Animal.

Remember that your Power Animal can change into any size, larger or smaller, when you need protection.

He or she can and will work in any way that the situation calls for to protect you <pause>

you may ask if your Power Animal would like to return with you to your sacred space
so that he or she will know where to meet you the next time <pause>
if you are comfortable with that <pause>

return now to the point where the two of you met <long pause>
going back to your journeying point <pause>
and return now to your sacred space <pause>

If your Power Animal is with you take a moment to exchange good-byes for now <pause>

Until you meet again <pause>
alone now, return to the room in your home where you started this special journey
<pause>

feel the room around you <pause>
feel the energy of Mother Earth and Father Sky <pause>

Join them <pause>
thank them for healing you and for holding your place during your journey <pause>

Release Father Sky with love and pull down your relaxed energy <pause>
that’s right, pull it all back, right back to the crown of your head where it started from
<pause>

feel your relaxed energy strengthening again <pause> tightening <pause>
like a loose mesh weave closing up <pause>

Release Mother Earth with love and gratitude <pause>
and as she releases, call back your roots <pause> all your roots <pause>
and bring your relaxed energy right back into your feet again where it started from
<pause>

feel your relaxed energy strengthening again <pause> tightening <pause>
like a loose mesh weave closing up <pause>

(Read the remaining lines more quickly.)

Feel your feet now <pause> your chins, calves, and knees <pause>
your thighs, hips, and pelvis <pause>
your colon, genitals, and organs <pause> your chest and back <pause>
your shoulders, arms, and hands <pause>
your throat and tongue <pause>
your cheeks and jaw <pause>
mouth, nose, eyes, and forehead <pause>
the top of your head and your scalp <pause>

I am going to count to three, and when I do,
you will open your eyes and feel confident, loved, fresh, and revitalized,
ready to continue on with your day.

You will remember the experience with your Power Animal in full detail.

That’s right, you will remember in detail your experience with your Power Animal.

1. <pause> feeling alert and aware <pause>

2. <pause> feeling happy and vital <pause>

3. <pause> open your eyes now <pause> and you are feeling alert and refreshed <pause> happy to continue on with your day.

You can repeat this guided meditation as often as you like. After a while, you’ll see certain patterns begin to emerge. You might have an owl as your power animal for as long as several years, and then have the ant. Your power animals change according to your needs, so that their energy fulfills where yours is lacking.

When Animals Pass to Spirit

Pets are loyal and loving companions. Like all living things, they have vital energy. Often when Rita does readings, spirits come through with their favorite pets accompanying them. Pets do follow us to the higher side.

Often, a pet is so identifiable that it becomes a key piece of identifying the person who’s coming through when that’s not clear. Pets show themselves by species (dog, cat), size, and personality. It’s wonderful to know that our beloved pets, like human loved ones, are still around us, even when they pass to the higher side.

Rita met with Kim via the telephone. She called after the passing of her dear friend John and asked for a spirit drawing of him. Rita always tells clients that she cannot promise that a specific spirit will come through, but John was there and very willing to communicate. John chose to show himself as a younger man although he had been much more mature when he passed to spirit. John talked about the month of March and showed the number eight. Kim confirmed that John celebrated a very special eighth anniversary in March. Rita identified lungs filled with smoke and Kim confirmed that John had been a heavy smoker. John also appeared with his beloved beige cat. Yes, animals go to spirit, too!

Mediums and Messages

At an evening church service, Rita came to a woman in the congregation and started to chuckle. She said, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I have a dog here that’s coming through for you. It’s a wire-haired terrier.” Then Rita said, “He behaves as if he has springs attached to the bottoms of his feet! He’s jumping straight up, it’s as if I can hear the word boing!” The woman was overjoyed and burst into tears. Her beloved dog had passed to spirit a month earlier … a wire-haired terrier that she always told people behaved as though he had springs on the bottoms of his feet.

Plant Energy

Many times a spirit will show a particular plant as a symbol; roses as love, daisies as new beginnings, for example. As with all symbols, each medium will create his or her own dictionary.

Plants give us all life-sustaining energy, every day. The whole-wheat bread you drop in the toaster in the morning … plant energy. The salad you eat for lunch … plant energy. The sautéed mushrooms and green bean casserole you enjoy for dinner … plant energy. Plants—grains, fruits, vegetables—are the fuels that give your body the energy it needs to carry out the functions of living.

Many plants have additional energies that often are not apparent, unless you are tuned in and know about these special qualities. Some of these qualities can be explained through biochemistry. We can look at the plant’s chemical composition and know the effect it will have on the body. But all plants have healing energy properties on the energy level. You can’t see, taste, or smell these properties. They act on your aura to influence your personal energy.

Medicinal Plants

Medicinal herbs and botanicals, for example, contain chemicals that function as drugs. The plant foxglove contains digitalis, which is the chemical now used in the drug digoxin, prescribed to strengthen and regulate the heartbeat. There are thousands of such plants, many of which are the basis for the drugs of modern medicine as well as ancient medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Plants with medicinal qualities act on your physical body to influence physical functions. The changes that result can affect emotional and spiritual aspects of your health as well.

Flower Essences

Flower essences use water to capture the energy imprints of plants. In most plants, the flower is the most potent energy source because it is the plant’s structure of regeneration. Flower essences come in liquid form, and have no taste or smell. They work by interacting with your personal energy field through your aura. Flower essences influence your spiritual and emotional dimensions.

Dr. Edward Bach, a British bacteriologist, discovered flower essences in the 1930s while he was doing research in the then-new field of vaccines. He began to find evidence that the plants he was using in his culture mediums actually influenced health by themselves, by interacting on an energy level.

Each plant has specific qualities that act on certain issues. Essence of pine, for example, influences self-acceptance. Roses, so familiar as symbols of romance, not surprisingly influence compassion and love.

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy has become popular in Western cultures because it smells good. You can enjoy aromatherapy whether or not you understand its energy foundation. Many people enjoy the fragrances associated with aromatherapy. From a scientific perspective, the smells of various substances elicit responses in the brain that cause biochemical changes. From an energy perspective, aromatherapy acts on the body’s energy field in the same ways as flower essences.

Honoring Spirit

You are spirit, and you are of spirit. The essence of your being is spirit energy in its own right. Your energy also connects with the spirit of the physical world around you, and the universe at large. Spirit and energy are inseparable. They exist contiguously, across the earth plane and the spirit world. Spirit energy links us to the natural environment that supports our physical needs, to each other, and to loved ones who no longer walk the earth plane.

This is the foundation of belief for many indigenous cultures, and it is the foundation that supports spirit contact and communication. Honoring this foundation, in yourself and in others, makes it possible for it to continue supporting you—in your everyday life as well as during times of special need.

The Least You Need to Know

• There is a continuous energy that supports all life on earth. All the world’s religions speak of a higher being, an omnipotent supply of energy, that puts life force into all things. Everything is spirit, spirit is everything.

• Ritual and ceremony provide constant reaffirmation of our connection to all that is spirit.

• You don’t choose your power animals. Your power animals choose you, depending on what your needs are at the time. Your power animals change as your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs change.

• Plant energy heals in ways we can observe and in ways that only our spirits recognize.

• All energy is connected. There are no boundaries between the energy of the earth plane, the energy of the higher side, and the energy of the universe.

Chapter 20

Near-Death Experiences

In This Chapter

• What happens during a near-death experience

• Common characteristics of near-death experiences

• Why you come back

• Lessons, collective and personal

A bright, beckoning light. A welcoming circle of family and friends. Peace, tranquility, and joy. These are common elements many people report when their souls travel to the brink of the other side and then return.

We call this experience “near death” because you return from it. What makes it “near” instead of permanent? What happens to send you back when it’s not quite your time to leave your physical life? Why would you be allowed to go, or be summoned to, the very brink and then be sent back?

Stepping to the Edge

Each near-death experience (also called an NDE) is unique, yet most near-death experiences share common characteristics. These typically include the following:

• Sudden trauma that precipitates the experience.

• The sensation of rising out of your body and observing it, and the activity going on around you, as an entity separate from your body.

• An end to any pain you might have been experiencing in your physical body, and an overwhelming sense of peace.

• The experience of floating through a dark tunnel or corridor.

• A bright light that draws you to it like metal to a magnet.

• The presence of loved ones gathered to greet and welcome you, just on the other side of the bright white light.

By definition, a near-death experience takes place when you reach the point of clinical death. Your heart stops, your breathing stops, your brain stops. All signs of physical life cease … and then return. Although the medical view is that brain cells begin to die after three minutes without oxygen, people have existed in a state of clinical death for as long as 90 minutes.

Spiritology

A near-death experience (NDE) occurs when the physical body experiences clinical death and the spirit leaves, and then life returns to the body and the spirit returns.

How is this possible? From the earth plane perspective, doctors have lots of ideas, but no conclusive explanations. From the higher side perspective, when it’s not your time, it’s not your time.

The Shock That Separates

Most of the time, a physical trauma precipitates a near-death experience. This might be a life-threatening injury, a crisis during surgery, a heart attack, a severe allergic reaction—any number of circumstances that strike suddenly and without warning. Such trauma shocks or jolts your being, separating it into its components. The physical and the emotional, as inherent elements of your tangible body, remain as your body. Your spirit, perhaps doing what it’s “programmed” to do, leaves.

But the higher side is not prepared for your arrival because, despite the events unfolding on the earth plane, it’s not your time to leave your physical existence. Of course your spirit always exists with one foot (so to speak!) in the spirit world and the other on the earth plane. This is the essence of physical life as we’ve discussed it throughout this book. Your physical body encases your spirit for its travels on the earth plane, but your spirit is still part of, and connected to, the bigger energy of the universe.

Although your spirit might freely travel during your dream state (many spirits do; see Chapter 17), it does so with intent. Not that you know your spirit is about to take off to go visiting, but your spirit (your higher being) knows. It disengages carefully from your physical and emotional dimensions—and returns in similar fashion.

During a near-death experience, your spirit is lifted from your physical body. There is no intent; it just happens. Little wonder you find the experience bewildering at first! Many people report that one of the first sensations they become aware of is that the pain they were feeling in their bodies, usually intense because of the trauma, is suddenly gone.

Mediums and Messages

A near-death experience is a spirit communication of the most direct kind. One of the first spirit drawings Rita did was for a woman who had been critically injured in a car accident. When Rita took Harriet’s hand in hers, both of them expected a loved one of Harriet’s would come through. Much to their surprise, however, the contact involved Harriet herself. “What I’m seeing is an angel come and lift you out of your body in your accident,” Rita said. “This was to protect you from feeling the pain from your many injuries, which would have been overwhelming to you.” “Yes,” said Harriet. “I remember. I came back to my body in the hospital.”

I See ME!

There you are, just looking around, and suddenly what you see is … you! No mirrors, no tricks. It’s really you in the flesh, as seen from the spirit. This is a consistent part of near-death experiences. Some people feel themselves lifting from their bodies and floating toward the ceiling, then looking down to see themselves as the focal points of desperate efforts to cut the journey short. For many people, this is quite a jolt. One moment everything is as it should be, and the next moment nothing is as it was. And there you are, looking at yourself from a view you’ve never had before!

Some people report that they are able to look down on their physical bodies during near-death experiences, watching the flurry of activity taking place in the efforts to revive them. A person who has had a near-death experience often can describe, in considerable detail, events that, if still within the physical body, he or she would not be able to see or hear. These events might include watching the doctors and nurses prepare and give injections, shock the heart, and place breathing tubes. The disembodied spirit can often hear conversations taking place in hallways and other places distant from the body’s location. When they return to physical life, people report these conversations.

The events of near-death experiences that take place in the physical world are easy to verify, because other people participate in them and can recall them. Some of the most intriguing insights we have into existence beyond the earth plane come from people who experience physical death and then come back. This is yet further evidence of the continuity of life.

The Goodness and Love of the Higher Side

A body that has experienced severe trauma—injury, heart attack, shock from illness, and the like—is nearly always in great pain. These are assaults on the integrity of the body, and they leave damage in their wake. When their spirits withdraw from these damaged bodies, people who have near-death experiences report, the pain goes away. They can look at their bodies and wonder if they really want to return, especially when so much goodness and love beckons from the higher side.

This is the “good” that we request when we ask that spirit contact and spirit healing come through for the greatest good and the highest intent. It is a welcoming, benevolent sense of absolute love—which makes sense as it is a representation of the divine.

This goodness is pure; it is the energy of pure love. It exists only for learning and healing. It is this goodness that manifests when spirits come through with messages. And it is the goodness that welcomes spirits that are passing over.

Tunnel Travel

Many people describe a distinctive tunnel or corridor, usually darkened, that they find themselves in when their spirits leave their bodies. At the end of this tunnel they can see a bright, white light, and they know that this is the portal to the higher side.

Some people report feeling fearful or frightened while in this tunnel, while others experience it as nothing more than a passageway that links the earth plane with the spirit world. No one really knows what this tunnel is or represents, but it is common to many near-death experiences.

Silver Cord

When it is time for your spirit to join your loved ones on the higher side, there is also sense of transition. Spirit communicators tell us that there is a sense of moving from one place to another and a sense of moving into the light. The spirits waiting to greet you on the higher side differ with the passing person’s desires, needs (on the higher side), and soul’s mission. You could cross over to an old-fashioned, backyard Italian picnic … or find your dearly departed lover offering you a dance.

Into the Light

In near-death experiences, people often report seeing a bright light with friends and family who have passed to the higher side already gathered around its edges. This is the light of divine energy. This is the light that reassures you that God is near and all is well. There is love, warmth, peace, and joy, and a strong feeling of desire to move into the light to complete the passage. Most people report feeling an overwhelming sense of pure love.

Of course, because it is not yet your time, you cannot complete the passage no matter how enticing the light and the love. And this is clear to your spirit, however much it might want to make the crossing. Spirits on the other side know, too. And as much as they want to communicate joy and goodness, they are there just to let you know that they are there … and that they’ll be waiting for you when it is your time to pass.

For many people who have near-death experiences, the light fosters a resurgence of faith in their God of understanding and a renewed commitment to following a spiritual path for the rest of their earth plane journey. It is an amazing and powerful thing to connect with such goodness and love!

So Many Welcoming Spirits!

Typically in a near-death experience, the spirits gathered on the other side of this light are smiling and happy to see their loved one, but they aren’t beckoning for you to join them. They know it’s not quite your time. But they want you to know that all is well with them. This is like a spirit communication of the most wondrous and direct sort!

Seeing the loved ones that have already passed is joyous, but this is often where the sadness comes in: You want to stay. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen many of them, perhaps, and you want to visit at least.

Here and There … at the Same Time

During a near-death experience, you’re not really in this world or the next. You’re sort of in between, existing a little in each but in neither completely. You aren’t aware of this to any great extent. It’s your spirit that appears to have the recall of events that happen during the near-death experience, which is how you return with a memory of events you couldn’t possibly have witnessed or experienced.

Connie brought her brother to Rita for a spirit drawing, and a drawing of their grandmother came through for him. He saw her eyes and began to cry. It is sometimes overwhelming when one can see the eyes of a deceased loved one appear on a sheet of paper. A year later, Connie, owner of the New Age gift shop Magick Mirror in Bristol, Rhode Island, came to see Rita, and the matching picture of her grandfather came through for her. The connection to a loved one who has passed to spirit, even in a spirit drawing here on the earth plane, is profound, powerful, and full of love. It’s no wonder that it is the loved ones who are there to greet us when indeed it is our time to pass to spirit.

Often, a person can relate, in verbatim detail, conversations taking place among others in hallways and physical locations outside the room where his or her body lies. The people engaged in these conversations might be different groups discussing the situation—doctors and nurses in one group in one location, family and friends in another.

The spirit has a simultaneous experience of all events related to the “death.” It witnesses the frantic activity to bring the body back to life, and sees events and overhears discussions that aren’t possible to experience from the body’s location. At the same time, the spirit is moving through the tunnel toward the bright light and the spirit entities that are at the other end. There is no time, there is no space. There is just energy and existence.

Not Quite Time to Go

With continuing advances in medical technology, near-death experiences are becoming increasingly common. People who just 10 years ago would have been declared dead from their conditions are now “brought back” to life. Many then go on to full recovery from their physical injuries and enjoy long, full lives.

Are they truly “brought back” or is it the divine order of the universe that their spirits are communing with the higher side? Of course, this is difficult to answer with certainty. But it seems that if it was your time to go, you would go—no matter what technology was being used to prevent such an outcome. And conversely, if it’s not your time to go, you won’t—not because technology saves your life, even if that’s how it looks, but simply because it’s not your time to go.

When it becomes clear that rather than completing the passage their spirits are instead returning to their physical bodies, people often report a sense of sadness and even resistance. They have “seen the light” and want to become one with it, to move into the warmth, peace, and joy that they feel.

Other people feel a sense of relief. Their lives on the earth plane are unfinished, and they know this. They are eager to return to complete those lives, and comforted in knowing what lies ahead for them when their time to make the crossing does come.

Divine Order … or Accident?

If there is a divine order, how can “accidents” such as near-death experiences happen? This is a valid question, and one that many people ask in trying to understand or explain the phenomenon of near-death experience. Remember, however, the critically important role of free will. Your actions determine your movement along your path. Your destiny is a journey, not an end point.

We could engage in debate about whether anything happens by accident. Perhaps your near-death experience is as much a part of the divine order of the universe as was your birth. Perhaps there are lessons for you that you can only learn by coming so close to making the crossing.

The Edge of Death

So what, exactly, happens when your body dies but the higher side says you’re not ready to make the crossing? There are biological phenomena, of course. Once your heart stops beating, blood stops circulating through your body. Vital organs feel the oxygen shortage immediately, and your body’s shock response leaps into action. This response sends epinephrine coursing to your heart, with the intent of jolting it into action, and simultaneously shuts down all body functions not necessary to support life.

Spiritology

Epinephrine is a natural chemical your body makes that stimulates heartbeat and breathing. Its release is part of your body’s ”fight or flight” survival response.

It seems odd to think that so much of this intricate design that is your body could have so many dispensable functions. But the core functions necessary to just keep your body alive are few: heart, lungs, circulation, brain. Everything else can wait—because if these core functions go, nothing else matters.

This is what we think of as the edge of death—one more shutdown function, and it’s all over. In a near-death experience, that “one more” happens. The physical body dies, at least briefly. It’s at this point, it seems, that the spirit makes its exit.

For many years, the medical explanation for the experiences people have during the time they’re “dead” has focused on the various chemical and electrical changes taking place in the brain as it attempts to cope with catastrophic oxygen loss. Nonessential parts of the brain begin to shut down almost immediately when oxygen levels reach a certain point. Among them are the parts of the brain responsible for cognition—thought and memory.

The rapid chemical and electrical changes that occur during this process cause brain cells to flare and die, activating memory and thought fragments. These flares account for the images of loved ones that people believe they see during near-death experiences, according to this explanation model.

You don’t actually see anyone; you just experience the activation of memory of that person. This is the same process that causes you to “see” your entire life flash before your eyes when facing what you believe is imminent death.

It’s an intriguing concept, and until research in the late 1990s and early part of the twenty-first century, it was widely accepted by medical personnel as the physiological explanation for near-death experiences. But this recent research shows that the brain’s shutdown is more rapid and more complete than previously thought. Once oxygen levels fall below critical levels, brain function virtually ceases. It doesn’t appear that even these chemical and electrical actions take place; there’s no fuel source (oxygen) to make them happen.

Another clinical theory puts forth the idea that it’s the brain’s return to function following a near-death experience that causes the activations that trigger memories and thoughts. As brain cells fire back up, they initially over-respond, like the flare of throwing straw on a fire, before they settle back into normal function.

Coming Back

Coming back to physical life is often quite a shock. Suddenly you’re reunited with the pain your physical body is experiencing, and that’s not pleasant. It’s a clear indication that you are still alive.

Many people report a sense of joy and exhilaration at being reunited with their physical bodies despite the pain, because it means they will continue in their physical lives. At this point, people often think of loved ones on the earth plane, such as children, and feel grateful that they can remain with them.

There is sometimes sadness at leaving, once again, the loved ones who have passed to the higher side. Seeing them again is joyous, and even though it tells you that they’ll still be waiting for you when it is your turn to make the crossing, it’s not easy to leave them.

Often, spirit loved ones maintain their contact from the higher side, appearing in visitations. It’s not that they weren’t willing to do this before the near-death experience, it’s rather that the NDE makes people more receptive to spirit contact.

A Transforming Experience

Just as a near-death experience gives a person who has one a new lease on life, it also provides a glimpse across what we’ve always perceived to be an impenetrable barrier. A near-death experience is profoundly moving, and often life-changing, for someone who has one. Many people who experience them find that they return to existence on the earth plane with awakened psychic and spiritual sensitivities. They see firsthand that death is a gateway, not an end.

Some people return to physical existence a bit reluctantly, in fact, not especially willing to leave the joy and peace that they’ve experienced as they’ve stood in the portal that links the earth plane and the higher side. Others return with a renewed sense of mission and destiny, confident in the continuity of life and certain of their places in the divine order of existence.

Heightened Spiritual Sensitivity

Spirit communication of any sort often heightens spiritual sensitivity. Evidence of the continuity of life is awe-inspiring. Not only does it affirm that life continues beyond physical death, but also that there is a divine energy that is the source of all existence. This represents the God of your understanding. As it becomes irrefutable that existence continues, so, too, does it become undeniable that God exists (again, this is the God of your understanding; there is one divine being but there are many presentations and perspectives of its existence).

Mediums and Messages

Doris stopped in to see Rita on a lark, thinking it would be fun and funny to get a spirit drawing. She thought she would get a drawing of some Native American guide that couldn’t be proven and would have no meaning. Both Doris and her husband considered themselves atheists, and purported to practice no religion. When Rita began to draw, the face of an older woman came through. Doris was stunned: It was in fact her mother-in-law! Doris came back to see Rita quite a few times afterwards, saying that she and her husband could no longer deny an afterlife.

Heightened or New Psychic Senses

Your psychic senses are how you link to, experience, and understand communication that takes place on an energy level. The intensified energy of a near-death experience often makes permanent changes in the abilities of your psychic senses.

It’s as though there’s been an electrical current surge through your energy field, rearranging its alignment and strengthening its charge. Your psychic senses, as part of this energy field, pick this up.

Even your physical senses can demonstrate how this might work. Think back to the last time you had an intestinal virus. Not a pleasant recollection, for sure! Do you still remember the last food you ate before you became ill? Can you taste it, see it, smell it? When something becomes associated with a strong experience, we remember it long after the experience ends!

Near-Death Lessons

Why do we have near-death experiences? No doubt one answer is to prove the continuity of life. Nothing is more compelling than going beyond the boundaries of physical life yourself and returning to remember and talk about it!

Every near-death experience has a unique lesson for the person who experiences it. It is a personal and intimate communication between you and the spirit world. The lessons of near-death experience are many and varied; the only lesson that matters to you, however, is the one of your near-death experience.

Although most people who survive to tell of their experiences seem to recover completely, nearly everyone is changed. It’s an extraordinarily profound experience. Some people do find themselves confronting physical changes as a result of the events that caused the near-death experience. There might be partial paralysis from a stroke or the injuries suffered in a car accident. There could be loss of limb or function.

But even in these situations, people tend to feel very positive about the experience. The physical reminders are also about learning and healing. No one wishes for such changes, of course. But when they happen, they tend to strengthen the conviction that life continues beyond physical death, and that life—everyone’s life—has value and purpose.

Silver Cord

Because near-death experience is a form of spirit communication, it is also about healing. Lessons are intended to reconnect you with spirit, with God, with love—however it is that you need to reestablish these connections in your life and existence. Only you will know, in the end, the lesson of your near-death experience.

Using a Near-Death Experience for Growth on the Earth Plane

It seems virtually impossible to go through a near-death experience and not grow from it. As difficult as the circumstances might be, this is a gift to you from the universe, from the higher side, from the God of your understanding. You could turn away from the opportunities it offers you. But why would you? You’ve already had the experience … let it fulfill its intent!

Millions of people walking the earth plane today have had near-death experiences. The collective lessons of their experiences have the potential to change the world, to make the world a better place. These are the lessons of love, compassion and support for one another. Imagine the possibilities!

The Least You Need to Know

• Millions of people have had near-death experiences.

• As unique as each near-death experience is, there are also consistent common qualities that link all near-death experiences.

• The bright light that so many people see is the light of divine energy, the light of the God of your understanding.

• A near-death experience happens for a reason, but it’s up to you to figure it out and learn from it.

• Going through a near-death experience often leaves you with a profound sense of connectedness to spirit and a renewed sense of mission in your life.

Chapter 21

Time, Space, and the Soul’s Life

In This Chapter

• Looking at reincarnation

• Your soul’s journey

• Identifying your soul group

• Exploring a past life: a guided meditation

• Using what you learn to better understand your soul’s mission

Just how old is your soul, and how many lives has it experienced before this one? The idea that the spirit lives indefinitely is intriguing enough. It’s comforting to know that there is more to our existence than the physical life we now live, however much we enjoy it. But to think of living multiple physical lives … that’s fascinated humans for centuries.

What happens when a spirit enters a new “life”? Is it possible to contact spirits that have “passed on” in this way, that is, reincarnated? For example, if your father has reincarnated, can you still contact him as your father in the spirit world? Do you, in your present life, remember your past lives? Do the experiences of those past lives extend in some way into this life—can you contact one of your own past (or future) selves? Do certain souls travel together? This chapter examines the concepts of past lives and reincarnation, and relates them to communicating with the dead and to past life therapy.

The Cycle of Existence

Cycles are the natural order of existence—day and night, planting and harvest, birth and death. As early cultures observed these cycles, they noticed that they repeat. Spring follows winter, autumn follows summer, light follows darkness. Over and over again, the pattern repeats. Why, then, would this not be the pattern or cycle of human life?

The concept of reincarnation dates back to earliest recorded history, and extends across various cultures. The Greek philosopher Plato believed—and taught—that the soul was separate from the body. While the body clearly was mortal—it lived and died—the soul was not. The soul, according to Plato, was immortal and continually reincarnated.

Reincarnation is a fundamental tenet of many Eastern religions. Hinduism believes that the soul returns to physical existence in various forms, depending on the lessons it still needs to learn. Such forms might be animal, plant, or human. A key element of reincarnation in many Eastern belief systems is karma. The principle of karma is simple: What you give is what you get!

Spiritology

Reincarnation is the return of the spirit to a physical body and physical existence. The word “incarnate” means “in the flesh.” Karma is the energy of cause and effect that you put out into the universe that comes back to you in this and other lifetimes, and it’s always about learning.

In its religious context, karma shapes reincarnation and defines the lessons of the next incarnation. In a broader context, karma is energy. Your thoughts as well as your actions are patterns of energy. Everything you think, everything you do, affects the universe in infinitesimal ways. Karma, as energy, has a ripple effect that extends far beyond logical comprehension.

Your Soul’s Journeys

Your spirit has a divine mission, a way it fits in the grand scheme of the universe. To fulfill its mission, your spirit chooses paths and journeys. It chooses its time of entry into this life, and the circumstances into which it will make its entrance. Your soul chose your parents to be the physical entities responsible for giving you physical life. These are choices and decisions that take place well beyond the realm of your conscious mind. In fact, they often take place before what you identify as your conscious mind actually exists! In a way, it’s like your spirit sits with God, co-creates your path with God, and plans the next phase of your existence. Continued existence on the higher side? Life on the earth plane? It depends on what lessons your spirit needs to learn. These determinations take place not only before you enter your current physical life, but throughout your existence as a physical being even though you have no conscious awareness of them.

Past life regression, which we talk about later in this chapter, is one way that you can gain a sense for the travels of your spirit. Experiences that you chalk up to déjà vu (the sense that you’ve been to a particular place or met a certain person before) could well be connections that you had in previous lives.

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What about “bad” lives? Of course, no one would choose a life of pain and suffering! So why, if the soul has choice, does so much suffering exist in our physical world? For reasons that we can’t comprehend, this is somehow part of the divine order and the soul’s lessons. What we do know, through spirit communication, is that the learning that occurs as a result of life’s hard lessons becomes part of the spirit’s evolution.

You come to this lifetime to learn, and you decide on the lessons of this lifetime before you arrive. This doesn’t mean these lessons happen automatically. Every choice you make, every decision you make, determines the next path you take along your journey. This is free will: You choose the direction of your life. Even if it doesn’t seem that your life is one of choice at all, your spirit has made decisions about how it will learn the lessons of this lifetime.

The really great thing is that you don’t have to go it alone! Each morning when you get up, say out loud, “God, show me the pebbles I need to step over, show me the boulders I need to walk around.” You don’t have to bang your head against the wall to “get” it! When we ask for help and guidance, we can more easily learn the lessons that we came here to learn.

Soul Companions

Are there people in your life that you feel you’re just destined to be with? Friends, lovers, even your siblings and your children, might feel like they are intended to be a part of your life. You know each other at a level of intimacy that seems to transcend your relationship. You have intuitive and even psychic connections. You finish each other’s sentences, you call or stop by when one is thinking about the other. You are connected to each other in ways that even other people notice. You are likely members of the same soul group—a cosmic family of sorts, spirits that travel together through existence.

Even if you don’t consciously know your connections to the physical lives of others in your soul group, you eventually encounter them during your life. This might be a stranger you meet in a coffee shop who seems so familiar that you begin talking as though you’ve known each other forever—which might indeed be the case! It’s usually a great delight to connect with the members of your soul group. You’re all traveling together on your spirit journeys for a reason—you have lessons to share with each other or a shared mission.

Relationships are not always the same. The characteristics of physical life that we consider important—such as gender and family lines—are just outer trappings. You are man or woman in this life, and you likely were woman and man in other lives. You and a soul partner might have been husband and wife in one life, and brother and sister in another. As awkward as this might feel when you think about it, remember that spirit existence doesn’t have the constraints of our physical world. Details like gender and relationship have little bearing, in the context of spirit growth and evolution, beyond their roles in bringing together the spirits who need to learn together.

Lessons of the Spirit

What are these lessons your spirit needs to learn? Each of us has different lessons; each soul has a unique mission. The more highly evolved your spirit, the more likely it is that your mission involves helping others with the lessons of their missions. Those who leave their legacies in history as great people—from religious leaders like Gandhi, Jesus, and Buddha to political leaders who direct the lives of millions of people—are highly evolved. Their spirits choose to return to physical lives to help direct the lives of others toward the highest and the best.

Highly evolved spirits are not just the famous and the powerful in their earthly lives, however. Who do you know in your life who seems to have wisdom and insight beyond his or her years? We sometimes say of such a person, “she has an old soul.” Intuitively we understand that, on a spirit level, this person has traveled many lives.

We believe that the ultimate goal of spirit evolution—and by extension, the lessons our spirits learn—is to work toward becoming one with the divine. A lofty ideal, to be sure! But if existence is about the spirit’s evolution, it is the only ideal that is possible. All lessons move toward increasing understanding and compassion—for ourselves and for others.

The Continuity of Time

It’s hard for us to conceptualize timelessness. Yet this is the paradox of the continuity of time: When time is endless, it isn’t time. Time, by definition, is a limitation. We ascribe characteristics to it that make it seem finite, but these are artificial. Minutes, days, months, years—methods of measuring time were made for the linear human mind.

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Our familiar calendar is called the Julian calendar. The Romans developed it during the rule of Julius Caesar (around 46 B.C.E.). It divides the year into 365 days (except every fourth year, when there are 366 days) and organizes those days into 12 months. As the Romans conquered much of what was then the Western world, they imposed this system of structured time on other cultures.

Even as we think of the cycles of life, we think of time as a linear element. We speak of past lives and future lives, lives that exist along a linear continuum. This implies that time has a beginning and an end. Again, this reflects the limitations of our physical existence, as spirits tell us there is no time on the higher side! Only in the physical world does time frame existence.

Connecting with Your Past … and Your Future

The connections of your past continue in the present. They also link you to your future, even though as yet you have no perception of it. The experiences and lessons of the past shape both the present and the future.

The idea of connecting with future lives is quite intriguing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know the future? The problem is, because it hasn’t happened yet, you can’t verify it. With past life experiences, there’s often a way to affirm what you sense were your experiences. Through spirit contact, you might receive information that validates perceptions that you have about a past life. You can connect this information and your perceptions to events and circumstances in your current life.

With future lives, this validation process is not in place. You can’t verify what you haven’t yet experienced. Further, these are glimpses of possible futures. Remember, free will determines the paths of your life. You choose the directions you take … in this life and in other lives. This makes your future lives moving targets. Each decision you make (consciously or on the spirit level) influences the path of this life and subsequently the paths of future lives.

Sometimes in your current life you find yourself in a situation with someone that is difficult. When Rita worked with troubled youth, she found one young man particularly difficult. Tony seemed to seek her out, yet continually challenged whatever she told him. For reasons Rita didn’t understand, she was especially tolerant of Tony—which she found frustrating because he took far more of her time and effort than it seemed she should give him.

Asking her spirit guides, “Why is this kid in my life?” Rita did a meditation to explore a possible past life relationship with Tony. The connection came to her quickly: In a past life, he had saved her life.

In this past life that took place in the mid 1800s, Rita’s father was a wealthy plantation owner. Rita had married an apparently gracious Southern gentleman, only to discover too late that a wicked temper dispelled any qualities of grace. In this life, Tony was a slave on the plantation, and he happened by the house one day when Rita’s abusive husband was beating her. Tony hid until Rita was alone, and then helped her to flee from the house.

After this meditation, Rita knew that in her current lifetime, no matter how difficult Tony was she would never send him away. The images from the meditation played on Rita’s mind, however, and she decided to paint them. When the painting was finished, she hung it in her studio. The next time Tony came in, he walked over and stood in front of it.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “Where is it? It’s not around here, but I know I’ve been there.” The painting he recognized was of the vision of himself in a past life, helping Rita in a past life escape from an abusive husband!

Past Life Therapy

Exploring your past lives can have great therapeutic value. Often, we carry around much guilt, anxiousness, and fear that we can’t pin to specific causes. Sometimes these feelings link back to past life experiences. Finding the connection can help you understand and resolve the issues responsible for the feelings.

Past life therapy, or past life regression, is a recognized form of therapeutic counseling. Many professionals of diverse backgrounds—physicians, psychologists, psychoanalysts, hypnotherapists, among others—offer past life regression as part of an overall counseling approach.

In past life therapy, the therapist puts you into a light hypnotic state. The therapist talks to you. Although you are deeply relaxed, you are not beyond consciousness. You are just at the level where your conscious mind is not intruding into the process.

During the session, you might see yourself in a different time and place with people who look similar to, but are not the same as, people in your current life. The therapist might ask you questions about what you see. When the therapist brings you out of the hypnotic state, you usually still remember the past life information that surfaced.

Past life therapy is often very profound. You might be amazed by how quickly you understand the connections between things that happened in past lives and things that are happening in your present life. You gain understanding and insight into why you behave in certain ways, even when your behavior doesn’t seem to make “logical” sense.

Premonition

If you have an overwhelming romantic attraction to someone you meet, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a match made in heaven! It might mean there are still lessons for you to work out with this person. Karmic connections aren’t necessarily romantic. If you feel a sudden, intense attraction, go into meditation and see if you can connect to a past life relationship to understand what you returned to teach each other.

Connecting with Your Past: A Guided Meditation

Past life therapy is only one way to connect with your past. You can call on your spirit guide to help you explore this dimension of your soul’s existence. This guided meditation can get you started. It is similar to the guided meditations in Chapter 7.

1. Make yourself comfortable in a location where you won’t have any distractions or interruptions.

2. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let the first breath clear your body, let the second breath open your mind, and let the third breath free your spirit.

3. Consciously form the thought: “This is my time to be one with God and for God to be one with me.” Set an intent that your spirit guide will help you to explore a past life.

4. In your mind’s eye, see yourself sitting on a bench in an open, beautiful garden. There are flowers and trees, and the air smells fresh and clean. It is peaceful and calm. Across from your bench is another bench, also inviting and peaceful.

5. Watch as your spirit guide approaches. Welcome your guide, and thank him or her for coming. Invite your spirit guide to sit on the bench across from you.

6. Open your mind and your heart. Open your psychic and spiritual senses to allow communication with your guide.

7. Ask your spirit guide to introduce you to a past life. Listen to your guide with your inner hearing, and watch with your inner vision what your spirit guide shows you.

8. Observe yourself. Look at what you are wearing. Observe other people who are around you. Observe what events are taking place. Just observe … understanding the meanings and connections will come.

9. Ask what lessons you brought from that past life that you are working on in this life.

10. When your past life experience seems finished, thank your spirit guide.

11. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel yourself back in your body, become conscious of your breathing. Wiggle your fingers and your toes, open your eyes.

After you are fully aware, pull out your journal and write about your meditation and the past life experiences it showed to you. Some people prefer to think about the experience for a while before writing in their journal about it; do what’s comfortable for you. Here are some questions to help you understand your experience.

1. What did you look like? What clothes were you wearing? How were you wearing your hair? Do you have a sense for what period of time it is? Is everything in context for the time? To make sure this is really a past life, everything needs to be in the correct context. Describe what you see.

2. Who else was present in the experience? Did any of these people look familiar? Describe each person in as much detail as you can recall. Include clothing, hair-styles, and other characteristics.

3. Now that you’ve written detailed descriptions of the other people in the past life that you linked to, do any of them seem familiar? Disregard factors such as gender and relationship; focus instead on what seems familiar.

4. What were you doing in this past life? Did you get a sense of your occupation? Write down all that comes to your mind about your job or daily activities in the past life.

5. What cultural heritage did you have in this past life? Is this a culture similar to, or very different from, the one you have in your current life?

6. What was your family like? How many children did you have? Do these people seem familiar?

7. Did anybody speak? Did they have accents? What language did they speak? If other than a language you speak, could you understand them?

8. How did you interact with the others in this past life connection? What seemed to be your relationships to them?

9. Did you get any sense for your name or any other identifying characteristics about yourself? How old did it seem that you were?

10. What did your surroundings look like? Could you hear any sounds or noises? Did you smell anything?

11. Write down any other details about the experience.

Often it takes time to fully understand the connections between your current life and your past lives. Recalling past life details doesn’t always paint a complete picture; you might have to wait for some of the pieces to settle into place for you.

After you’ve connected with a past life, you can do additional meditations that focus on the connections you’ve discovered. With each exploration, you’ll learn more about your spirit’s travels and you’ll understand more about your journey through this life.

Understanding Your Soul’s Mission

Each physical life that your spirit inhabits has a purpose and a role in your soul’s mission. Exploring past lives gives you additional pieces to add to the picture. Eventually patterns will emerge that will help you to get a better sense for what your spirit’s mission is, in this life as well as beyond.

In this life, as in at least one previous life, Rita is an artist. Through exploring her past life connections, Rita has come to understand that part of her spirit’s mission—and her mission in this life—is to prove, through art, the continuity of life. Her spirit drawings have touched countless lives, affirming her sense that this is the reason for this life’s journey. What’s your soul’s mission?

Hilda had arranged for a spirit drawing for her husband Arthur as a gift. When Arthur arrived, Rita began to draw and a beautiful mature woman appeared on the paper. Arthur wasn’t sure who this could be, so he brought it home to show to his wife. Hilda looked at it, showed the portrait to her mother, who immediately took a photo out from her wallet, which matched exactly, including the woman’s dress. Rita had drawn Hilda’s grandmother, Maria. Yes, in-laws come also!

The Least You Need to Know

• The concept of reincarnation has been part of belief systems in many cultures for thousands of years.

• Your soul experiences different physical lives so that it can carry out its mission and learn its lessons.

• In a past life dream or meditation, everything needs to be in context of the particular era.

• The people that you feel especially connected to in this life might be part of your soul group, spirits that travel together through different lives.

• Past life therapy is a way to understand how the events of past lives influence your behaviors in your current life.

• You can use guided meditation to connect with your past lives.

Part 6

Karmic Cycles and Soul Lessons

Do you feel like you’ve been this way before? Quite possibly you have! Your spirit’s mission might take you through numerous lifetimes. The lessons you need to learn in this lifetime might be matters left unresolved in previous lifetimes.

These chapters look at how you can bring together your psychic and mediumistic abilities to draw healing energy for yourself and to send healing energy to others—both those on the earth plane and those who have passed to spirit.

Chapter 22

Mastering Your Spirit Gifts

In This Chapter

• Finding out what your psychic gifts are

• Using your abilities to consciously shape your future

• Asking questions—and being open to the answers

• Why do you want to explore these abilities?—an exercise

• Keeping yourself open to the possibilities

Everyone has the mediumistic abilities that can bridge the veil between the physical and spirit worlds. Using these gifts is simply a matter of opening yourself to the possibilities. You’ll find that you are naturally stronger in some abilities than in others. Focusing to develop these skills leads to improvements in all parts of life. Everything is energy, and it is all connected.

Your spirit gifts open new vistas to you, which are often quite profound. Certainly it’s entertaining to develop some gifts, such as telepathy. But it’s also a process of discovery, of learning, of helping yourself and others. These are gifts of love and of healing, and using them in these ways leads only to good.

When you start to open up through meditation and feel what attracts you, you start to put the pieces together. We get different pieces to master in this or other lives. As we work on understanding each gift that comes to us through psychic or spirit connection, we bring them together in a whole picture. This picture unfolds over many lifetimes and in concert with many other fellow journeyers (both on the earth and on the spirit planes). This is not a process to fear; it is a process to welcome and cherish. It is part of the divine order of the universe.

Identifying Your Spirit Gifts

Although you likely excel in certain spirit gifts and lack interest or refinement in others, they exist in unity. Also, there is an integration between what you might view as your tangible gifts and your spirit gifts. Rita, for example, is blessed with artistic talent. Combining that with her mediumistic abilities provides an avenue for development in both areas. We all have roles in spreading the message that life is continuous.

What are your particular spirit gifts? Even now, you probably have some idea of the areas in which you seem to have inherent ability. These are good areas to start your spiritual unfoldment, and there is an exercise later in this chapter to help you identify your starting points.

Using Your Spirit Gifts

First and foremost, your spirit gifts exist for goodness and healing. No matter what those gifts are or to what extent you choose to develop them, they are your link to an energy that is much larger than you are. They connect you to the divine, and to all existence. Self-exploration is very important. As you travel this path, you will discover yourself.

Perhaps you feel you really don’t want to expand your own mediumistic senses, but instead want to explore the ways someone else’s abilities—a psychic’s or a medium’s—can bring new information into your life. This is a wonderful start. Of course you can experience spirit contact through readings. But this changes you and your abilities, too, because everything is energy and everything is connected.

Think of all the many ways that you use your physical senses during the course of a day—or even an hour. In fact, that’s a good exercise: For one hour, write down every time you use a particular physical sense. Start with taste, because we tend to think of this as an isolated, intermittent sense. After all, you don’t go through your day tasting everything; you use your sense of taste only when you eat. Or do you? You might be surprised! Then move to your sense of smell, your sense of sight, your sense of hearing. When you walk past a bakery, the smell invites you in. You are driving down the highway and you see a hawk fly, and it gives you a sense of freedom. You taste cinnamon and think of your mother’s apple pie.

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Cats offer good observation of the integration of physical sense. They have heightened sensory perception in their mouths through which they smell what they taste. Have you ever watched the breathing of a cat that is in a new experience or environment? It crouches with its mouth slightly open, giving the appearance of panting. This isn’t just to bring more oxygen into its system to accommodate its “fight or flight” response. All of those extra air molecules bring information to the cat’s sensory systems, expanding what it collects about this new challenge.

What happens to you when you enter a new environment or situation? Do you feel like all of your senses are heightened and on edge? People who engage in high-risk adventures such as skydiving often report intensified sensory experiences. When such an adventure takes you close to what you perceive is the brink of death (though not a near death experience), you might indeed feel that you can taste the air! You also might feel like you can hear colors and see sounds. The energy of the experience is so strong that it crosses conventional borders.

The same happens with your psychic senses. As you explore and develop them, they become more integrated with each other as well as with your physical senses. This increases the amount of information you can gather about your environment, your experiences, and, really, your life. If you’re paying attention, this is all information that increases your understanding.

Naturally Curious

The expression might be, “curious as a cat,” but in reality, no creature on this earth is more curious than the one who stares back at you in the mirror. We humans want to know everything. How does that work? Why does it do that? What happens if …?

In childhood, we ask just these questions. By the time we become adults, we have learned not to ask these questions because they don’t always have apparent answers. But often, it is the question that matters more than the answer, because asking the question honors the quest—the journey—for knowledge and understanding.

Reclaim your natural curiosity! This is how you grow and develop as a human being, and evolve as a spirit being. Life is a dynamic adventure, an exploration. Your psychic abilities are additional tools available for you to use and appreciate.

Shaping Your Future

You hold your future in your hands, regardless of the extent to which you choose to develop and use your psychic gifts. Each choice you have, every decision you make, influences the next step you take along the path of your soul’s mission. You don’t consciously think about this the vast majority of the time. Your higher being—your spirit in interaction with the thought energy of your subconscious mind—makes many of the choices and decisions that guide your direction.

When you become aware of some of these decisions, you can make them with intent. This is powerful indeed! It’s a good thing to move toward your spirit’s mission even when you are unaware that you’re doing so; life seems easy and smooth when this happens. When it doesn’t, you might find challenge and frustration along your path. Nothing seems to quite work out for you. You feel a half step off—and maybe you are, because you can’t see the path. Imagine how different your journey would be if you could see each step and where it takes you! You can, once you start looking.

Peter came for a sitting and drawing in 1996 at the First Spiritualist Church of Quincy. He immediately recognized the drawing, but laughed and said that his Uncle Walter would never be caught in a suit and tie. When Peter searched for a photo, the only one he could find was a picture where Walter, in fact, wore a suit and tie! Rita finds that certain people, when appearing from spirit for a portrait, dress accordingly.

A New “World” View

We seek because we sense that there is more to our lives, this existence, than we detect. We know, at some level, that growth and development are important spiritually as well as physically and emotionally. We know that ours is a dynamic, not a static, existence. We see evidence of this all around, from the physical signs we see in the mirror—the changes of aging—to the spiritual changes we feel as we encounter situations such as the passing of loved ones. Your psychic senses help you “make sense” of all of these experiences.

What concerns you the most about the progress of living? For most people, it is worry about what lies at the end of the road. All life moves inexorably toward this end; we see this every minute of every day. Once, people were terrified to venture very far from their homes, convinced that the earth disappeared beyond the horizon. There was nothingness, a vast void, on the other side of where the sky meets the earth. Traveling there was … well, beyond comprehension.

But then Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue—and changed the world view for everyone else. (As did dozens of other courageous and curious explorers.) Of course the earth continued beyond what the human eye could see. Today we laugh at the perception of a flat earth; we’ve seen the view from space, and we know better.

You are an explorer, too. And you might fear that your world disappears or ends beyond what you see as its physical boundaries. Spirit contact tells us, as did Columbus’s reports back to his sponsors, that there is no end. It’s just different. Columbus and his fellow explorers found exotic new lands, with new species of plant and animal life and physical surroundings like nothing they’d ever seen. This is where your spirit explorations will take you.

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Of course, Christopher Columbus was not the first explorer to expand the view of the world. The Vikings raveled to what is now the northeast United States more than 2,000 years ago. Explorers came from many countries to settle what was referred to as the New World, including the earlier ones who were to become the Native American settlers.

What you learn, whether about geography of the physical world or evidence of the spirit world, changes your world view. Knowledge changes how you perceive the events in your life. Knowledge changes you and the way you live your life.

Helping Others

What do you do in life? Think about how you use your tangible abilities and talents. Inevitably, you use them in the service of others. You might do this because it’s your job and someone pays you to. But odds are, you do what you do because you enjoy how it helps someone else. Whether you build bridges, perform surgery, sweep side-walks, sell newspapers … no matter what you do, it somehow helps others.

Your spirit gifts expand your ability to help, in different ways. At the very least, they give you increased insight, empathy, and compassion. You see a bigger picture, which gives you the ability to view the actions of others in a different context. When you know that there is more to life than meets the physical senses, you can be more kind, tolerant, and forgiving. Learning to forgive yourself first, and then to forgive others in your life is a cherished gift; and, yes, forgiveness is always possible.

Is there a relationship to someone important in your life—a child, parent, sibling, spouse—that you feel is drifting, or is impossible to repair? Nothing is impossible with time, love, and effort. If you can spend two hours a day in front of the television, you can decide instead to set aside a portion of that time for improving your relationship. Be tenacious and steadfast, even if your efforts are rebuffed at first. After all, you’ve got endless time across many lives to get it right. And what better time to start than now.

Remember, spirit contact is about healing, learning, and love.

Ask the Right Questions and Keep an Open Mind

What do you want to know? Sometimes asking the right questions is the hardest part of seeking answers. The more specific the question, the more directed the answer—and also the more limited. Everyone has unresolved issues. Relationships of any kind are complex and often confusing. Human behavior is even more so! Your questions are personal to you, and their answers are likely to bring about significant change in your life.

Are you ready to know the answers you seek? It seems obvious that you are, if you’re asking the questions. But sometimes the questions take us in unexpected directions. The answers often aren’t what you anticipate, although they provide the information that you ultimately need.

We talk a lot about proving the continuity of life. This is something that interests most people who want to make spirit contact. We miss loved ones who have passed to the higher side, and want more than anything, at times, to have just one more contact. Love is an all-powerful energy that connects us through space and time, but the sense of loss that accompanies a loved one’s passing can be overwhelming.

Receiving contact from the spirit world is a blessing. It is also a life-altering experience for many people. Seeing is believing … and believing isn’t always easy. Even when your faith incorporates belief in the continuity of life, you might not be prepared for how evidence of it affects you. Again, remember that spirit communication is for good and for healing. And it comes of love, the most powerful energy of all.

Premonition

If you are interested in furthering your abilities, take the time and effort to properly develop your mediumistic skills. As with any other skills, knowledge and practice bring improvement and expertise. Appendix B gives some resources for furthering your mediumistic education.

Where Do You Want Your Skills to Take You? A Self-Exploration

What skills do you want to develop? Do you want to become more in tune with your intuition? Explore personal issues? Facilitate spirit contact for others? Do you want to connect with earth energy, spirit energy, or both? The following self-exploration can help you determine where, and how to start your psychic development.

1. What psychic or mediumistic abilities do you feel that you have? Circle those that apply.

Clairaudience
Clairsentience
Clairvoyance
Intuition
Premonition
Psychometry
Spirit contact (loved ones or spirit guides)
Telepathy

2. What psychic or mediumistic abilities do others tell you that you have? Circle those that apply.

Clairaudience
Clairsentience
Clairvoyance
Intuition
Premonition
Psychometry
Spirit contact (loved ones or spirit guides)
Telepathy

3. Is this statement true or false for you: Psychic senses are as much a part of my daily life as are my physical senses.

Yes No

4. If there was just one question you could ask the God of your understanding, what would it be?

5. How do you communicate with the God of your understanding? Check all that apply.

____ I pray in times of need
____ I pray at certain times
____ I meditate at certain times
____ I meditate regularly
____ I feel that I’m in continual communication with God
____ I don’t communicate with God
____ I don’t believe in a divine being

6. What is your faith or belief system? Has it been consistent throughout your life?

7. Have you had a near death experience? If so, what was it like? How did it affect your life?

8. Have you ever experienced a miraculous healing?

9. Have you ever received healing energy and prayers from others? If so, did it seem to have an effect?

10. Have you ever sent healing energy and prayers to someone else? How did you feel about doing it, and did it seem to have an effect?

11. This life is a journey for your soul. What do you want it to experience?

12. Do you feel that your life has a sense of mission or purpose beyond the activities of everyday living? Describe it.

13. Are there people in your life right now that you feel you have psychic or intuitive connections with? How do you use these connections?

14. What comes to your mind when you think of your own passing?

15. Do you have spirit guides or guardian angels? How do you know, and how do they help you? Have you ever seen them?

16. Do you have dreams that involve visits or communications from loved ones who have passed to the higher side? Describe the most recent such dream.

17. If you could have any psychic or mediumistic skill, what would it be and why?

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers here; this is an exercise to help you explore what interests you and how you might develop your abilities to aid that exploration. You can revisit the exercise in Chapter 12 to further identify and develop your psychic skills.

Shaping and Enhancing Your Skills

The best way to develop your psychic and mediumistic skills is to find a good teacher! Start with sources that you trust, and see where they lead you. You might feel there aren’t many options in your local area, but keep looking. Eventually you will find the right opportunities. You might have to drive or travel to find the teachers you need. Don’t just wait until something comes to you! If you don’t connect, just keep looking. Don’t give up, and don’t settle for what you know isn’t quite right.

If spirit learning opportunities are abundant in your local area, great! But don’t limit yourself to them. Remain receptive to new doors that open. Try to have many different teachers, so you learn more than just the one teacher’s way. Each teacher has different abilities and will bring out different abilities in you. Be sure that, under any circumstances, you trust the teacher. Don’t idealize the teacher, though—teachers are just human, just like you. They’re just more aware of their skills!

Oh, the Possibilities!

The possibilities that your psychic abilities open to you are endless! If you find yourself being inspired along a healing path, try different modalities. Experience them, see whether you relate to them or whether they really don’t make any sense. It could be that it’s not your path, or that you’re not ready for it yet.

Remain an explorer. Self-exploration especially is very important. As you travel this path, you will discover yourself, and you will learn more about your purpose in this life and how you can use your gifts to help others and make this world a better place. In the end, that’s really what this is all about!

The Least You Need to Know

• Each of us has mediumistic abilities. The extent to which you develop and use yours is up to you.

• Remember to ask your question, set an intent, and then go into meditation.

• Your life is a mission for your spirit. Your psychic senses help you to understand what this mission might be, so that you can shape your life for the learning your spirit needs.

• Psychic abilities and mediumistic skills are available to you to use for helping yourself and others. Always use them in love and for the highest intent.

• Learn from those you trust whose level of expertise is higher than yours. Seek opportunities to learn and expand your knowledge.

Chapter 23

Soul Patterns and Life Lessons

In This Chapter

• Exploring your patterns

• An exercise to ask your spirit guide for help

• Changing negative thoughts to positive energy

• An exercise to create an affirmation

• You can change your soul’s path

Is it so hard to make certain changes in your life because the changes are difficult, or could it be because your soul is resisting your efforts to derail it from its pattern? Whether you believe you have many lives, or just this one, the awakening of spirituality leads to many questions … and, if you are willing to accept guidance from beyond yourself, many answers.

It’s fun to play around with your psychic abilities, to see how many times you’re right about the next song on the radio or to call a friend right when she’s about to pick up the phone and call you. It’s entertaining to look at people’s auras and to see what you “read” from objects you touch and places you go. And this is all well and good.

But there is much more beyond fun and entertainment. We all have serious issues and concerns that drain our energy and keep us from finding the joy and happiness that our lives can and should contain. Gaining insights into the circumstances that create negative energy in your life gives you the means to turn that energy around.

Awakening to the Possibilities

Patterns are behaviors we slip into, almost without realizing that we have done so. Certain events or situations act as triggers that activate a pattern. You don’t consciously think, “Louise is home two hours late again. I’m going to yell at her, she’ll get mad and yell at me, and then we’ll have a big fight and not speak to each other for the next three days.” But that’s what happens.

What is behind this reaction for you? Does it come from Louise’s patterns, your patterns from earlier in your life, or patterns from previous lives that represent learning still necessary for your spirit? No matter the source, gaining an understanding of the bigger picture can help you change your patterns so they support a more loving and joyful life.

The Energy of Intent

Many good and right things happen to you in your life without your conscious awareness or efforts to structure or plan them. Through no efforts of your own, you end up in the right place at the right time. You might not even notice that this happens! Once you become aware of the connections, however, you can begin to use them in conscious ways.

Using Your Psychic Abilities for Insight and Learning

College professors joke (or complain) that students seem to think they can learn by osmosis. Put the textbook under your pillow when you go to sleep at night, and when you wake up you will have absorbed the book’s contents. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this could happen? But the reality is that you won’t know anything about the contents of that book until you look between the covers. You must read the book to understand its message. And you might even need to read additional books and go back to original sources to get enough information to qualify as learning about the subject.

But learning doesn’t happen by osmosis. It requires effort, work and focus. A hammer doesn’t build a house; intuition doesn’t fix a struggling relationship. It’s up to you to use the tools available to you, in ways that allow you to build the life that lets you develop and grow.

Calling on Your Spirit Guides: A Guided Meditation

Your spirit guides are always available to help you. Often they are at work when you don’t realize that they are there, or even that you need their help. Invite your spirit guide to give you specific guidance about a particular problem, challenge, or concern. Use this guided meditation to structure your lesson.

1. Make yourself comfortable in a location where you won’t have any distractions or interruptions. Prepare yourself for meditation. Take three slow, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let the first breath clear your body, let the second breath open your mind, and let the third breath free your spirit.

2. Consciously ask your spirit guide to join you, to help you with your concern or your question.

3. Envision a place of peace and calm. There are two comfortable chairs. You are sitting in one of them. Your spirit guide enters the room and sits in the other.

4. Focus your thoughts on what it is that you want your spirit guide to help you understand. Be specific. Complete the request, “I want you to help me understand …”

5. Open yourself to receiving your spirit guide’s response, in whatever form it takes. Listen with your inner hearing, observe with your inner vision.

6. If anything is unclear to you, ask more questions. Ask how you can use this information to resolve your problem. Remain calm and open, even if your spirit guide’s response seems to be missing the point of what you asked.

7. Ask your spirit guide how to use the information he or she has just provided.

8. Thank your spirit guide for coming, and say good-bye.

9. Feel yourself back in your body, become conscious of your breathing. Wiggle your fingers and your toes, open your eyes.

Silver Cord

No matter what change you want to make in your life, you can always ask to be guided by a higher power, your higher self, your loved ones, your spirit guides. They can’t make the changes for you, but they can lead you to the lessons you need to learn so that you can acquire the insight and information to make changes.

As with any spirit communication, it’s important to stay open to whatever information comes through for you. You might feel that the information your spirit guide gave you was interesting but not especially relevant; insight and advice that comes through symbolic interaction is not always clear. Writing in your journal about your spirit guide lesson can help you to explore the many meanings that the message has.

Are You Doomed to Repeat It Until You Finally Get It?

Throughout history, leaders and philosophers have warned us that unless we learn the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat them. We turn to this as explanation for the cycles of challenge, strife, and even war, which define human existence. If only we could “get” it, then we could end this cycle of doom!

This lifetime we’re living right now may be just one piece of our soul’s progression. This is not about being doomed to repeat the lessons we don’t get. It’s about the journey of “getting” it. It’s about having the privilege to keep learning, so that we can continue to evolve and grow.

Each of us comes to this physical life to learn. Our lessons are not just behavior-oriented lessons like being kind to one another, although certainly these acts of compassion are elements. Rather, they are lessons of insight and understanding to allow us to make paradigm shifts.

Spiritology

A paradigm is a model or framework of collective beliefs and behaviors.

Your beliefs and behaviors form your personal paradigm. This is the pattern of your life. What you do represents what you believe, whether or not you are aware of it. In some ways, paradigms are similar to the symbolism that shows up in dreams, and in the symbolic messages that come through spirit communication.

The Energy of Your Thoughts

The most important thing in your life that you can change is the way you think! In reality, this is the only thing you can control and change, and yet it’s the thing we spend the least amount of our time and effort doing.

Your thoughts are energy. Your thoughts are as tangible as your words and your speech. When you change the way you think, you change the way you move your life—just as when you change your pace when walking you change the way your body moves. When you choose to live your life in the flow of goodness and love, then you change your own energy vibration, which has an amazing ripple effect on every person you touch.

The Negative Energy of Worry

Many of life’s challenges come from worrying about the actions and behaviors of other people. You might think that you change your energy, but so what? If the energy of all the people around you stays stuck, how does that help you in the end?

You may find that you create your life by worrying about what you don’t have. All of this worrying sends out negative thoughts. When you change your thoughts, you change your energy. This is the “self-fulfilling prophecy” trap: You worry so much about something that it comes to pass, at which point you can say “See? I told you this would happen!”

Angie spent a lot of time worrying about having enough money to pay her bills. No matter how hard she and her husband worked, there never seemed to be quite enough. They argued about money; their money concerns seemed to rule their lives. Finally Angie realized she couldn’t continue this way, and made the determination that every time such a thought came into her head she was going to replace it with a positive thought about the good things the money they did have made possible. Instead of thinking, “I don’t have enough money for this,” Angie consciously changed her thought to “I have just enough money to meet this need.”

This worked fine for Angie. She immediately felt as though a tremendous burden lifted from her. She found that although not worrying about money didn’t change how much of it she and her husband had, it relieved the stress of always feeling like she had to fix things. And oddly enough, it made it seem as though the money they did have was adequate—barely—to meet their minimum needs even if it wasn’t as much as they wanted.

As Angie became more attuned to the energy of her thoughts, she realized that even though she had changed her thoughts about money, her husband still had many negative actions and thoughts. She worried for a while about how to change that, and suddenly it dawned on her: She couldn’t change him! She could only change the way she thought about him. She had to change her perceptions.

Accomplishing that shift in perceptions became her next focus. Every time she found herself thinking, “All Richard does is complain about not having enough money,” she made the conscious effort to think instead, “Richard is financially comfortable.” Eventually, this caused Angie to change the way she reacted toward Richard. Instead of snapping at him, she was able to empathize with his concerns and say things that contained heartfelt support. It wasn’t long before Richard also relaxed, and between them they were able to find ways to be economical and efficient. Feeling more confident, Richard found a new job with a better salary. Their financial situation improved considerably.

Changing Negative Thinking to Positive Thoughts

Negative thinking is insidious. Sometimes, even when your actions are positive, the thoughts that drive them come from a negative perspective. This spills out into everyday life in ways you often don’t recognize.

We tend to focus on what we don’t want to have happen. I don’t want to get cancer, I don’t want to be in an accident, I don’t want to lose my job, I don’t want to get lost when I’m driving through San Francisco, I don’t want to fail my biology test, I really hope there are no delays at the airport when I fly to Baltimore next month. Feel how the energy of these concerns shifts when you instead say or think:

• My body is healthy and strong, and I take good care of it to keep it that way. My cells, my tissues, my organs, my systems are all working together.

• I will drive with attention and focus, and I will arrive at my destination safely.

• I like my job, and I want to stay in it as long as it continues to meet my needs and my company’s needs. I have good skills and abilities that, combined with the learning of this job, make it possible for me to always have a good job.

• San Francisco is a beautiful city. Even though this is my first time here, I have a map and good directions, and I know I will find my destination.

• I’ve been looking forward to this trip since I planned it three months ago. The people who work for the airline are just as interested as I am in making sure that my flight is as smooth and uneventful as possible.

Silver Cord

Athletes, musicians, dancers, and other performers often use positive visualization to prepare for events. They focus on envisioning themselves moving perfectly through the event, from start to finish, experiencing every move. When they get to the actual event, they’ve already gone through it so many times that the pattern for success is well established and all they have to do is follow it. There is no room for worry about “what if ….”

When you find yourself worrying about what you don’t have, make a conscious choice to instead think about what you do have. When you change your perceptions, you change your reality. The key is to change your thinking from focusing on what you want but don’t have to wanting what you have. Hope in the positive and avoid composing your hopes as negatives. If you find that you conceive your hopes in negative terms, you may be surprised to find that, in some way, you are hoping for the worst—for something that is unlikely to happen, for your fears! Instead hope for what will happen. Thoughts are energy, and they are creative force—positive, hopeful thoughts create your positive, hopeful reality.

The Challenges of Change

Change is not easy. Although this might seem the epitome of understatement, it’s necessary to say this. Change is not easy. One of the ironies of insight is that for as wonderful as it is to know why you do something, there isn’t a direct link to making changes in your life to support your newfound learning. Insight leads to decisions about actions, but it doesn’t directly result in actions.

The connection between insight and action (change) requires conscious attention and continual effort from you. You can decide to make a change, but then you must continue making choices that support this decision. Tuning into the energy of the universe, through your psychic senses and through spirit contact, connects you to endless support. We say, when we talk about this support, that it is yours for the asking and that it is there to help you carry out your spirit’s mission in this life.

It’s important to remember that this is true in the context of the bigger picture. There is a grand scheme to existence that none of us have the ability to comprehend—in physical life. It is beyond your power to change everything. Many recovery programs and support groups begin their meetings with a simple prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Breaking Free from Negative Patterns

Negative patterns often develop as a result of inaction rather than action. You slide into habits based on can’t, don’t, won’t. You can’t get a good job because you don’t have a college degree and you won’t be able to do all the other things that you like doing if you quit your current job to go back to school.

When you read such a statement in a book, it’s easy to see the elements of choice that are present. In real life, “can’t” and “don’t” situations are those over which you truly have no control. If you are paralyzed from the waist down, your legs don’t work as they did before and you can’t walk as you did before. No matter how much you want to change this situation, you are not able to do so. These are facts of reality, and there is little that you can do about them.

You can, however, choose the ways you deal with these constraints. You can decide to work out regularly to strengthen and condition your upper body, so that you can become fully mobile using a wheelchair. You can choose to use weights, stretching, massage, and other physical therapy techniques to tone, as much as possible, the muscles and structures in your legs that no longer work as intended. You can determine that you will find ways to transcend your physical limitations that will then allow you to keep doing anything you want to do—albeit maybe in a new way!

Negative pattern is anything that’s causing you difficulty in your life, a pattern of repetition, one that you realize you fail to understand. Why do you keep doing this, you wonder? Somehow, you miss the connections between your actions, past and present. You recognize the events or circumstances that puzzle you, but you struggle to perceive the connection these have to your current behaviors and situations. You remember, but you just don’t understand the relevance all this has to your life path.

Negative patterns get the attention because they are often destructive. When things are going well, it seems that we have the tendency to coast along, not really noticing the details. It’s only when relationships, jobs, health, and other aspects of your life begin to fall apart that you might look for the patterns that establish the problems. And “if” is a key word here; noticing patterns requires mindful awareness—conscious intent.

Any time you can substitute the word “won’t” you are clearly in a circumstance of choice. This is the case most of the time! Changing your thought processes and your energy to think in terms of “will” is very powerful. You can choose to recast your thinking in the positive and fully “choose your choices,” reinforcing behaviors of strength, confidence, and love. When you want a child to be careful with a drink, you say to the child, “Hold the glass straight” rather than, “Don’t spill the milk!”

Premonition

When you have a painful relationship to resolve that involves someone who has passed to the other side, it’s important to first release the despair, to let it go. The situation, no matter what it was, was not your fault. This moves both you and your spirit loved one toward healing.

When we say things in the negative, we open the door for our greatest fears to manifest. Negatives are about fears. Expressing hope in the negative reinforces the fear, however subtly. When you express your hopes in the positive, then you move in a positive direction. And maybe others will be encouraged, both on the earth plane and the spirit plane, to move with you!

Establishing and Maintaining Positive Patterns

One reason that negative patterns are so difficult to change is that we focus on putting an end to them but are sometimes thoughtless about replacing them with positive patterns. Behaviors and thoughts are energy; when you take energy away, it leaves a void. Without intentional replacement, that void will fill with whatever energy is readily available. More often than not, this will be the same energy that you just sent away, because it’s right there. It’s the flow of least resistance.

When you dig a hole in the yard and just leave it, what happens? Most of the time, it fills back up with dirt, rocks, weeds—whatever is handy. The only way to keep this from happening is to intentionally put something in the hole to replace the dirt that you remove. Energy is the same way. It’s great to remove negative energy, but to keep it from returning you need to replace it with positive energy.

Leonard came to Rita for a reading because he was having extreme relationship difficulties. Now in his 40s, he had never had a relationship longer than three or four months. The person who came through to Rita was a man that Leonard identified as his father. “Was your father a doctor?” Rita asked. “He’s showing me a doctor’s bag.”

Puzzled, Leonard said that no, his father had been a jeweler. Rita went back to the spirit visitor, who again showed her a doctor’s bag. This time there was also a message. “There was something with your mother and a doctor when you were about four years old,” Rita said. “Do you remember that?”

Leonard was quiet. He did indeed remember his family talking about the matter. His mother was having an affair with the family doctor, he told Rita, and all the family gossiped about it. Leonard immediately recognized that this was the source of his distrust of women, and the reason none of his relationships lasted. He was able to release the negative energy of the mistrust and move forward with his life. He’s been in a loving relationship with the same woman for seven years.

Silver Cord

Absent healing is a wonderful and powerful use of energy. It’s important to see the person well, see the part of the body that’s injured as repaired, to see the person as healthy, whole, and complete.

Spiritualists believe in reformation of the human spirit at any time, here or hereafter. What this means is that at any time, we have the opportunity to change our lives and move in a positive direction. Our life paths are fluid. Life can always be turned around. If spirit is telling you the bridge is out, are you going to just drive off the cliff? You can take a detour! If any psychic or medium tells you something is carved in stone, run the other way. If spirit gives you a warning, it means that you have an opportunity to make changes.

Your Personal Action Plan: An Exercise

Positive energy is powerful. You can use it to shape and focus your life in ways that allow your dreams and hopes to become your reality. What about your life would you like to change? Let this exercise show you just how effective this can be!

1. Choose a hope or an aspiration, something that you’d like to have as a part of your life that is not a part of it right now.

2. Articulate this hope as an affirmation. Be as specific as possible (see Rita’s example following the exercise).

3. Write this affirmation in the first person (“I am …”), then in the second person (“he/she is …”), and then in the third person (“Rita is …”). This is important because it makes the affirmation both internal and external, and gives you different perspectives of the same vision. Write each version of your affirmation five times.

4. After writing them, read your affirmations out loud, one in each person. How do you feel when you hear the words? Allow yourself to feel where it feels awkward to you, and then change your affirmation until it becomes entirely comfortable to you. (It’s important to release your affirmation to God for the highest and best intent. Sometimes what you hope for is not for your highest and best; if it were to materialize, it would cause problems for you, such as an affirmation to marry the current love of your life when there are serious issues that make it unlikely the relationship would work.)

5. First thing in the morning, write (or say, if you don’t have time to write) your affirmations five times in each person. After you complete the affirmations, consciously release the hope to the highest and the best.

6. Continue this process until your affirmation begins to manifest for the highest and best. Each time, be sure to release your affirmation to the God of your understanding.

The first time Rita did this exercise, she knew her affirmation would be about her painting. So she went into her studio and wrote, “I show my paintings. She shows her paintings. Rita Berkowitz shows her paintings.”

She wrote this affirmation for a few days, and then realized it needed something more. So she revised: “I show and sell my paintings. She shows and sells her paintings. Rita Berkowitz shows and sells her paintings.” But this still wasn’t enough. So Rita revised the affirmation a third time, coming to, “I show and sell excellent paintings. She shows and sells excellent paintings. Rita Berkowitz shows and sells excellent paintings.”

Rita wrote her affirmation five times a day for several weeks. Then she got the idea for a series called “City Folks.” In the ordinary scheme of the art world, a painter does 10 or so paintings, takes slides of them, and then contacts gallery owners to view the slides and try to land shows. It’s a challenging, sometimes grueling, process Rita had been through a number of times already. Although it’s very important for an artist, it was something Rita had trouble looking forward to!

Rita wrote her affirmations every morning and started working on the paintings in the series. She had just completed the third painting when gallery owners began stopping by her studio, seemingly for no apparent reason related to Rita’s current cycle of work. They saw the paintings she was working on, and started asking when the series would be finished, and whether she wanted to show the paintings. This spontaneous offer to show is almost unheard of in the art business, and Rita was astonished. The series turned out to be Rita’s most successful, and the paintings sold all over the United States. Rita’s affirmation came to pass!

Changing Your Soul’s Path

Your soul negotiates with the divine (God) to establish its mission, and to choose the life paths that will support this mission. This is the element of existence you might think of as destiny—it is the cosmic course of your spirit, something that is determined as the course of events that will unfold no matter what.

Destiny comes from the Latin word destare, which means “to take a stand.” This is what destiny is from your soul’s perspective—taking a stand for what it needs to accomplish during this lifetime. Taking a stand requires conviction and action. You’ll see that it is hard to take a stand by passively allowing life to flow around you. You act with firm conviction to take a stand—to put your destiny in motion—through the thoughts and actions you choose.

Mediums and Messages

In Greek mythology, the Fates were three goddesses whose role was to spin the threads of life for each person born. One, Klotho, spun fibers into the thread (birth). Another, Lachesis, controlled the length of the thread (life). The third, Atropos, wielded the scissors that cut the thread off (death). Mortals remained powerless to influence the actions of the Fates; they alone determined the dimensions of life.

Your soul’s path is the means by which it takes a stand. Because your actions determine its course, it is dynamic and ever changing. Each decision you make advances your soul toward its mission. Some choices change the direction of your path and the length of time it takes to achieve what is necessary.

When Rita’s husband David came home from work in December 1996 and said that he had a new perk at his job, tuition reimbursement for spouses, Rita felt great excitement. She had long wanted to go back to school for her master’s degree in painting, and this looked like the perfect opportunity, dropped right in her lap.

She did a meditation about it, and instead got a very different and unmistakably clear message from her spirit guides: “Go back to school, get your master’s degree in psychology.” The message was emphatic and powerful. Rita did two more meditations and got the same message, which affirmed for her that it was the right choice. So she went to graduate school and earned her master’s degree in psychology. She now finds that what she learned is a crucial part of the work she’s doing.

It’s important to confirm or verify any message that tells you to make changes in your life. Ask three times, as Rita did. If you get different answers, back off. If this is genuinely an opportunity that has your name on it, it will still be waiting for you whenever you’re ready to accept it. Always make sure you are 100 percent comfortable with the message before making any changes or taking any actions based on it.

Finding Fulfillment in This Life

Inasmuch as your life on the earth plane is a piece of the bigger whole and but a passage in your soul’s journey, it is itself a mission. It’s wonderful to be aware of the ways in which your life fits into other facets of existence. But your life is the here and now of your current existence, and the only way to make this part of your journey worthwhile is to make it the best experience possible.

You live in the here and now. Infinite decisions, choices, and actions shape the future, some of which are within your control and many beyond it. Keep your mind open! Remain unattached to outcomes, and allow process to happen.

Sheree works in Women of Wisdom and has seen many spirit drawings produced for others. In her drawing, Sheree immediately recognized her grandmother Delia and the description of Delia’s home. Delia reported everything, including her favorite color, insisting as well on being drawn with her hair in a 1970s-style frizz perm. Sheree didn’t remember her grandmother with this hairstyle, but upon asking her father, he could produce photos with Delia wearing the frizz perm and the same color dress she had insisted upon in the drawing.

The Least You Need to Know

• Your thoughts project powerful energy.

• Expressing a hope or a dream in a negative way puts out negative energy, turning your hope into a fear.

• Through affirmations, you can shape your thoughts to help your hopes and dreams become your reality.

• You can always make changes; there is always time.

• Your soul’s path is dynamic and ever changing.

Chapter 24

Using Spirit Energy to Heal the World

In This Chapter

• Seeing the bigger picture

• What your life’s journey means to you and to others

• Healing yourself and others

• Healing the world

• Change starts with you

• How sending healing energy can bring about change

Each life, each spirit entity, is unique, with its own set of experiences, challenges, and learnings. Yet each life and spirit entity is also a piece of the journey that is the world’s existence. We can shape the world’s future—our future—through the efforts of our spirits, whether they are working to the good from this side, or from the higher side.

When we evolve to a certain level we become one with the higher, one with the collective energy. As individual evolution becomes higher, individual personalities become less important. We move from “mine” to “ours,” from “I” to “we.” Our physical lives give us the opportunities that our spirits need to make these transitions. And through these transitions, we influence and shape the world’s energy.

The Bigger Picture

Each of us has an absolutely different mission, and each mission has infinitely many paths that can take you to it. The people who enter our lives (on the earth or spirit planes) all have reasons for doing so, regardless of how long they stay or what it seems we accomplish as a result of their presence.

It is an amazing choreography. Even though it doesn’t always feel that way, the people who come into your life come together for good purposes. Even when you think this is not the case, or that the outcome is less than you hoped for, we are all working toward a positive end. Sometimes the people who have the greatest roles in revealing lessons and leading to progress are the people who are the most challenging. Challenge is a form of questioning, of problems that present opportunities.

At one point in her life, Rita worked for a company that was incredibly difficult because the owner liked to play mind games with people. If you were on his good side it wasn’t so bad, but when you were on his bad side, he made your work life nearly impossible.

After Rita had been at the company for some time, the owner offered her an astonishing promotion. But it immediately became clear that there were many strings attached to the offer. Ultimately, Rita felt the only choice that she had was to leave the company, so she did. She went to a new job, where her interactions with clients resulted in a series of paintings that she otherwise would never have thought to do.

The people who push you in these ways are often pushing you toward where you are supposed to be in the bigger picture, even when it seems that all they’re doing is pushing your buttons, or forcing you toward difficult situations.

Your Journey’s Meaning

Spirit communication provides validation that the journey that is your life has value, purpose, and meaning. Those who have passed to the higher side can reach back to you to show you there is more to existence than physical life. Your passage through this physical life is an opportunity for your spirit to grow and evolve and for the events of your life to contribute to growth and evolution for others.

For You

Your spirit is here on the earth plane, living as a physical entity, because there are lessons for you to learn. These lessons often come in the form of challenges. You face problems, adversity, even crises. You wouldn’t consciously choose these circumstances because they are often hard and painful and involve loss and suffering.

Silver Cord

Astrology is a way to confirm the information that you receive through meditation. Because astrology is the blueprint of your life, it shows the path of your spirit’s evolution.

But these are the experiences that are your soul’s lessons. They are what you point to as defining moments in your life. From them you make changes—sometimes forced—in the outward ways of your life. You see and experience these changes. The inward changes that accompany them are not so obvious or visible. They reflect the personal growth that results from confronting the challenge.

It’s not that this is the only way your soul can evolve, through the lessons of problems and difficulty. Rather, it’s that the problems and difficulties are the events that force you to pay attention to your soul’s mission. You learn just as much (if not more) from situations of loving kindness, of goodness for the highest intent. One goal of healing is to increase the learning that comes from good.

The Hierophant, August 1991, oil on canvas. Rita worked on a series of paintings based on the Tarot in the early 1990s. In the Tarot deck, the Hierophant card is the symbol of all that is spiritual coming together. Recently a teacher of Rita’s sat in trance and told her of a rabbi in full regalia who was her guide. When Rita showed him the painting, he smiled and said, “That’s him.”

For Others

Your life touches the lives of countless others. This is most obvious in your immediate circle of contact—your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. You form bonds and connections with these people through which you send and receive energy.

Sometimes people enter your life, or you enter someone else’s life, for a specific purpose and this is clear from the moment you meet. The purpose might be limited and defined. A mechanic who opens a shop on your commute route just when your car needs repair. A woman ahead of you in line at the grocery store who tells the clerk that a position has become available in her company just when you’re looking for a job. A security officer who happens to drive by when you’re walking through a nearly deserted parking garage after working late. Circumstances such as these are constant reminders that the energy of the universe is there to help you in times of need, small and large.

Sometimes the contact is amazingly brief. A woman who profoundly changed Rita’s life was someone she spent just five minutes with at a holiday party in 1995. Grace was studying art, and wanted to meet Rita because Rita was a professional artist. Grace was 92 years old, a tiny woman who walked a mile and a half from her house to the School of Fine Arts in Boston, where she studied figure drawing.

After talking with Grace, Rita thought to herself, “If she’s not too old to learn, I’m not too old to learn!” Rita then made the decision to return to college for her graduate degree, setting aside her worries about possibly being the oldest person in her class (she wasn’t).

Other times, your life becomes entwined with the life of someone else for reasons that aren’t very clear. This is particularly true for mediums whose role is to bring people into contact with messages and information that will be profoundly moving, and then to drop from the picture. From a Spiritualist perspective, this is the key purpose of mediumistic abilities.

Sometimes you think people come into your life for you to help them, and they end up helping you instead, in ways you didn’t know you needed help. When Susan met Alan, he had some substance abuse problems. Susan thought she could help him, and before long she became involved in an extramarital affair with him. Her marriage was difficult, and she found comfort in helping Alan.

But Alan’s substance abuse problem was significant, and as he slid into decline he became less comforting and more challenging. In a flash of insight born of Alan’s problems, Susan realized she needed to redirect her energy toward working on the problems in her marriage.

Working Toward a Common Good

As much as we like to focus on the positives of psychic and mediumistic abilities, it’s a reality that they occasionally reveal challenges and problems. When this happens, surround the situation with as much white light as you can. You probably can’t stop the situation from unfolding; it clearly is necessary for those who will experience learning as a result.

Also send healing prayers, to help those who are caught in the situation to pull from it the information and insight that moves them in the direction of what is for their highest intent.

Premonition

When your psychic or mediumistic abilities show you a negative situation or a disaster, send healing energy immediately. Don’t wait to see if your prediction is right, and don’t worry if it doesn’t come to pass. You might never know that you made a difference. Always send healing that is for the highest and the best.

The World’s Energy

Spirit connection is so amazingly powerful that you might be tempted to look at it as the heal-all for our planet, the world environment that supports us. This is a pretty good temptation, as temptations go! As with all tools, you must learn how to use your psychical (mediumistic) gifts to bring spirit connection into your life and to apply its insights for your good and growth as well as for the common good and growth.

The world—our world community—doubled in size from the 1960s to the 1990s. In the space of a single generation, twice as many spirits entered earth plane existences. We see the consequences of this population growth as an incredible drain on resources, environmental as well as social. Although the energy of the universe is endless in its capacity to support life, boundaries and limits define the Earth’s ability to do the same. As we draw from the Earth to sustain our physical lives, it becomes increasingly important for us to replenish and restore its environment.

Energy is an endless flow, a continuous exchange. The universe gives to us, we give to the universe. There is no loss, only exchange. Resources don’t really become depleted; they just change form. There is an abundance of all that we need out there—we just have to remember to ask.

What Can You Change?

Change, all change, starts with you. You probably could argue that it stays with you, too, because in reality all you can change is yourself. You can change your thoughts and actions, your beliefs and behaviors. The differences might sometimes seem so small as to be inconsequential, but they have significant ramifications nonetheless.

The Power of Free Will

We’ve talked a lot about your free will and how it shapes your path through this life. Students frequently ask Rita, “What happens when someone else sends you healing and you don’t want to accept it?” Perhaps you sense your time of passing is near and you don’t want to delay it, or you just don’t want this healing energy that’s being sent to you.

Your higher self, in conjunction with your gatekeeper (main spirit guide), guard access to your spirit. Your higher self decides whether to let the healing in. This is often related to the journey you’ve agreed to embark upon in this lifetime. You agree, before you enter this life, to what you will do and accept. This agreement frames the choices you make.

If healing comes to you for your highest and best, it’s not intended to make everything better. It’s simply there for you to use if you choose. It won’t interfere with your soul’s path. If it’s your time to make your transition to the higher side, then you will, no matter what energy those on the earth plane try to send to you. And if it’s not, then you won’t.

The Power of Love and Goodness

All healing comes in love and goodness. It’s sometimes hard to believe that this is the core of our existence, the basis of the universe, when so much of what we see and hear in our everyday lives seems far removed from either love or goodness.

When we talk about the higher vibration of the higher side of life, we are talking about a place of light, a place of love and goodness. We come from there! Even in our physical forms we remain part of this love and light. You come to this earth plane existence to learn, but you are always connected to the source of your origin. Before, during, and after incarnation, we are always spirit.

Teresa, March 1991, oil on canvas. Rita sat with some friends doing readings, when above her friend Teresa’s head she saw a vision of a young nun praying. She mentioned it to Teresa and did a quick sketch, which was later to become a painting. Teresa stayed in storage for about nine years when Rita met an astrologer Terese, who was to become a good friend and who was fascinated by Rita’s spirit artwork. Rita told her she painted a painting of a young nun named Teresa and Terese asked Rita if the nun was actually St. Theresa, “The Little Flower.” Being of a different religious origin, Rita had not heard the story, so she showed her friend the painting. Terese became quite excited and brought a book that showed an actual photo of St. Theresa; they seemed to match.

Connecting Beyond Yourself for the Greater Good

We are all connected. Some connections are closer than others, but we are all connected as one. If one person hurts, it affects every one of us. Alone, your energy is powerful enough to shape the flow and direction of your personal life. But in combination with the energy of others, you become part of a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Imagine what could happen if everyone would …

• Send healing to the earth.

• Send healing to the parts of the world where there are problems.

• Send healing not only to the people they love but the people they don’t.

• Send healing to the people they care about as well as those who cause them problems.

• Send healing to those challenged by disaster and tragedy.

There are no limits to the good that we can accomplish when we pool our individual energies! Make your own list of healing prayers to further focus your energy for the highest intent. You might send healing when you …

• Drive past an accident on the highway.

• See a police chase.

• See aid units on their way to a rescue.

• Hear of a family left homeless by a fire.

• Hear that a child is missing.

• Learn that a neighbor lost his job.

• Hear that a local business is closing.

Silver Cord

It just takes a moment to send healing energy to transmute the energy of problems that you see. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Just send healing!

Add your own reasons to send healing:

Many of us spend a lot of our time worrying about things we believe we cannot change. We don’t have to feel helpless in these situations. We can send out healing, do what we can on a spiritual level and on a psychic level and connect with the energy to transmute it to work toward the positive.

There is much strife and discord in our world, and it often seems so overwhelming that there is little hope for change. But change takes place one person at a time. And over time, this adds up to an amazing collective energy capable of changing—and that does in fact change—the vibrational pattern of energy throughout the world and the universe.

As insignificant as it might seem for you, as one person, to change the way you think, it is impossible for such a change to exist in isolation. Every thought, every action, affects the flow of energy in ways both obvious and obscure. More often than not, you don’t see the full and multiple outcomes of these changes.

We often use the metaphor of tossing a pebble into a pond and watching the shift in energy ripple outward from the point of impact, until ever so faintly those ripples reach the shore and echo back toward their center again. Even when you can no longer see them, the ripples are still moving through the water.

On the Earth Plane

From our lives here on the earth plane, we cannot always see the outcome as being for the highest good. We have to trust that when we are working in light and for the higher good, the energy and the healing will go in that direction.

Avoid attachment to outcomes; that’s “I” energy, or ego energy, not healing. Send healing, send love. The body has an intelligence (as does the earth); the healing will go where it needs to go.

To the Spirit Plane

The same holds for those on the spirit side. They can send healing and love to the earth plane. You can also send healing and love to the higher side to help a spirit entity evolve to a higher place.

Many times, those on the higher side can see the bigger picture. In turning to the higher side for assistance and guidance, you can go to the master teachers, to the spirit guides, and to the infinite source (the God of your understanding) and ask them to send healing to the earth plane.

Mediums and Messages

Rita’s friend and mentor Bob Miller uses every opportunity to send healing energy to people. When walking down the street, if he sees somebody looking very distraught, he goes to them, shakes hands like he knows them, and sends spiritual healing to them! Then he pretends to have confused the person with someone else, and gracefully disengages. This gives him the opportunity to make the physical contact to send the healing.

Using Universal Energy to Help Others

The energy of the universe belongs to all of us. It is ours. We can tap into this energy at any time to be of service. When you are sending healing to a disaster or to someone who is fixing a flat tire at the side of the road, you send positive energy out there. No matter how small, it matters—and it only takes a moment. All too often, we are so caught up in our own busy worlds that we don’t see the needs of others. We need to help those who are hurting. We need to take care of ourselves.

Fly high, and see the big picture!

The Least You Need to Know

• Look beyond your own life to help take care of the needs of others who might be hurting.

• The energy available for healing and to help others is endless.

• The power of one is significant; the power of many is awesome.

• It only takes a moment to send healing energy, yet the effort can change someone’s life. It’s all about goodness and love!

Appendix A

Glossary

Akashic record A pictoral record of all of your soul’s actions and travels, past, present, and future that occurred since the beginning of time, imprinted in the astral light.

apparition A visual manifestation of spirit energy.

archetype A pattern of images that represents a specific and universal realm of experience, such as the hero or the victim.

aura A final, outer layer of energy that surrounds the body.

bits and pieces The term for the way mediums express the fragmented way in which information sometimes comes to mediums, especially at the beginning of their development.

cerebrum The largest and most highly developed component of the brain.

chakra One of the seven centers of energy within your body.

circle A group of people, usually having mediumistic abilities, who gather to connect with spirit entities.

clairaudience The psychic sense of inner hearing.

clairsentience The psychic sense of inner knowing.

clairvoyance The psychic sense of inner vision.

closed circle A group that meets regularly with the same members.

collective unconscious The combined shared experiences of all humankind.

communicator The spirit that is bringing you the message.

cosmology A culture-specific description of the origin and structure of the universe.

discarnate spirit A spirit without a physical body.

dowser A person who uses divining rods or a pendulum to search for water or to check energy fields. In healing, dowsing is also used to balance the chakras (bodily energy centers).

earthbound spirit A spirit existing between the earth plane and the higher side, commonly referred to as a ghost. ectoplasm A substance spirits produce to make themselves visible; comes from the Greek words ecto, meaning “outside,” and plasma, meaning “a thing formed.”

embalming The process of preserving the physical body after death to prevent its decay and deterioration.

epinephrine A natural chemical your body makes that stimulates heartbeat and breathing.

extrasensory perception (ESP) The nonphysical senses that gather impressions and perceptions about physical and nonphysical experiences.

fake A person who pretends to make the desired contact, sometimes with the best of intentions (to help you feel better).

fishing The medium gives out small bits of information and then asks questions to fill in the picture.

fraud An intentional fake motivated by self-interest that is almost always financial.

free association The practice of saying or writing the first thing that comes to mind in response to a particular word or image.

gustation The technical term for the sense of taste. healer A person (who may or may not be a medium) who has the ability to receive healing energy from the higher side and direct it to people on the earth plane who are ill or injured physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

human energy field The composite structure that contains your physical existence.

hypnosis A sleeplike state in which behavioral patterns can be changed to create healing.

invocation A prayer or formal greeting that invites spirit presence.

kami The spirit of a departed family member that remains among the family and community.

karma The energy of cause and effect that you put out into the universe that comes back to you in this and other lifetimes.

Kirlian photography A process of taking pictures in which the photo shows the object and its energy field.

levitation The action of a physical object, sometimes a person, lifting into the air through spirit energy.

materialist medium A medium who receives spirit messages that manifest themselves in physical appearances, such as images visible to others who are present.

message work The portion of the service that presents spirit communication in the Spiritualist Church.

metaphysical A term generally used to describe experiences and events that have no apparent physical explanations.

mythology A collection of a culture’s popular beliefs used to explain the unknown, such as the origin of life, to define acceptable behavior, and to teach moral lessons.

near-death experience A phenomenon that occurs when the physical body experiences clinical death and the spirit leaves, and then life returns to the body.

olfaction The technical term for the sense of smell.

open circle A circle for spirit contact that anyone can attend, with a wide range of mediumistic ability present.

pagan beliefs Worship of multiple deities, gods, goddesses, and natural events such as the changing of the seasons.

Paleolithic period Period of time in history that began two and a half million years ago and that is considered the dawn of modern humankind.

paradigm A model or framework of collective beliefs and behaviors.

paranormal phenomena The events and sensations people attribute to the presence of “ghosts,” such as unusual sounds and sights for which there are no obvious explanations.

parapsychologist A scientist who studies psychic phenomena.

past life regression therapy The process of exploring past life connections to present issues and concerns.

philosophy A formal system or structure for studying and applying a society’s beliefs and standards.

physical plane The level of existence at which spirits take physical form (our physical world).

power animal An animal spirit with special traits or characteristics that represent attributes or qualities that you have or need.

prana A Sanskrit word meaning life energy.

precognition The psychic sense that permits you to perceive experiences across the boundaries of time, into the future, seeing them before they happen.

psychic skills The skills through which unspoken communication takes place between people on the earth plane.

psychical skills The skills through which communication takes place between people on the earth plane and entities in the spirit world.

psychical vocabulary of symbolism The “dictionary” of symbols and representations that a medium acquires to make communication with spirits possible.

psychometry The ability to sense a person’s residual energy on objects and in locations.

purgatory A station of transition, in certain religions, where the soul goes to await judgment following death of the physical body.

Reiki An ancient system of hands-on energy healing.

reincarnation The return of the spirit to a physical body and physical existence.

spirit chemist A spirit guide that works through healing to change the biochemistry within the body.

spirit physician A spirit guide that works like a physician on the earth plane might.

spirit plane The level of existence at which there are no boundaries of tangibility, time, or space.

Spiritualism A faith system based on belief in the continuity of life beyond physical death.

subtle bodies The seven layers of the human energy field.

telepathy A process of thought transference in which one person receives information from another without using any physical means.

theology The study of God and God’s relationship with humankind within the context of a structured religion or faith system.

thought transference The process of being able to communicate one’s thoughts without physical means such as speaking or writing.

totem An emblem or symbol that has spiritual significance.

trance A state of altered consciousness in which the medium allows a spirit to speak through him or her.

trance medium A form of spirit communication in which the medium enters a state of altered consciousness that allows spirits to communicate through his or her body.

transfiguration A spirit’s physical characteristics superimposed over a medium’s features, presenting an image of the spirit entity.

universal energy field The energy of all existence, encompassing the physical and nonphysical worlds.

vision quest A ritualistic spiritual exploration seeking contact with power animals, spirit guides, and the spirits of loved ones who have passed to the higher side. Many times it is used as a rite of passage.

visitation A phenomenon when a spirit speaks to you rather than through you.

Zener cards A deck of 25 cards, with 5 cards each of 5 symbols, that researchers use to measure telepathic ability.

Appendix B

Additional Resources

Browse through these additional resources to find more information about topics that interest you.

Books

Andrews, Ted. Animal Speaks. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publishers, 1952.

Atwater, P.M.H., with David H. Morgan. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Near-Death Experiences. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2000.

Budilovsky, Joan, and Eve Adamson. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Meditation. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 1999.

Campbell, Joseph, with Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Cayce, Edgar. You Can Remember Your Past Lives. New York: Warner, 1989.

Denning, Hazel. True Hauntings: Spirits with a Purpose. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1996.

Finkelstein, Arthur, M.D. Your Past Lives and the Healing Process. Malibu, California: 50 Gates Publishing Company, 1997.

Hammerman, David, Ed.D., and Lisa Lenard. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reincarnation. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2000.

Hay, Louise. Heal Your Body, 4th ed. Carson, California: Hay House, Inc., 1993.

Ingerman, Sandra. Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.

Lewis, James R. The Dream Encyclopedia. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1995.

Moore, Thomas. Care of the Soul. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.

———. Soulmates. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

Pliskin, Marci, CSW, ACSW, and Shari L. Just, Ph.D. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 1999.

Prophet, Mark A. Kuthumi Studies of the Human Aura. Los Angeles: Summit University Press, 1997.

Robinson, Lynn, and LaVonne Carlson-Finnerty. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Psychic. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 1998.

Tart, Charles T. Body, Mind, and Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality. Charlottesville, Virginia: Hampton Roads, 1997.

Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Many Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

———. Through Time into Healing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Websites and Organizations

www.OfSpirit.com

This website hosts a weekly online magazine that presents articles, information, and resources for learning more about energy healing, spirits and angels, principles for attracting prosperity, and methods for maintaining good health. The site also features many links to other useful websites and resources.

www.SoulStirring.org

This website features information and examples of spirit-related art by many diverse artists working in all media (including the spirit drawings of co-author Rita Berkowitz).

www.snu.org.uk (Spiritualists’ National Union)

This is the website of the nationally recognized Spiritualism organization in the United Kingdom. The site offers information about qualified mediums, the religion of Spiritualism, special events involving Spiritualism, and general articles. It also features links to related websites and resources.

International Association for Near-Death Studies
PO Box 502
East Windsor, CT 06028
www.iands.org

This organization coordinates and sponsors studies of near-death experiences.

Schools for Mediumship

Arthur Findlay College
Stansted Hall
Stansted
CM24 8UD England
Phone: 01279 813636
Fax: 01279 816025
E-mail: afc@snu.org.uk

The Arthur Findlay College is the world’s most renowned educational institute for Spiritualist mediumship. Students study Spiritualist philosophy and religious practice, Spiritualist healing and awareness, and spiritual and psychic unfoldment. Link to the college’s page from the Spiritualists’ National Union website, www.snu.org.uk.

Lily Dale Assembly
5 Melrose Park
Lily Dale, NY 14752
716-595-8721
www.lilydale.org

The Lily Dale Assembly is a Spiritualist community that offers daily lectures, demonstrations, and healings in July and August of each year. Classes feature a broad range of subjects related to human spiritual development.

Morris Pratt Institute
11811 Watertown Plank Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226-3342
Phone: 414-774-2994
Fax: 414-774-2964
www.morrispratt.org

Founded in 1889, the Morris Pratt Institute provides a comprehensive course of instruction to prepare an individual for the ministry of Spiritualism as a Spiritualist teacher, licentiate, or ordained minister, healer, and medium. The course is a self-paced program of distance learning. The Morris Pratt Institute is well respected in the international Spiritualist community.

Index

A

absent healing

accidents (NDEs), versus divine order

Acheron

activating mediumistic abilities

called spirits

dreams

African spirit traditions

afterlife

contemporary beliefs in continuity of spirit

communion of spirits

Day of the Dead

Festival of Samhain

external existence with the gods

faith systems

Hollywood versions

soul’s destination

Akashic record

All Hallow’s Eve

All Saint’s Day

amending mistakes, interpreting spirit messages

animal energy, power animals

guided meditation

passing to spirit

apparitions

appeal of Spiritualism

applying psychic gifts

helping others

making sense of expeiences

reclaiming curiosity

shaping future

archetypes

free association

Jungian dream analysis

spirit communication

aromatherapy, plant energy

asking the right questions

assisting transition of the soul (after death)

activity on the higher side

completing unfinished business

interrupting souls

releasing fear

releasing love

suicide deaths

violent deaths

wishful thinking

associated fear, recognizing spirit contacts

astrals

projection

solo exercise

two-person exercise

subtle body

astrology

metaphysical perspective of the soul’s beginnings

Atropos

aura (bioenergy)

colors

exploring your

healing

automatic writing

B

Bach, Dr. Edward

beginnings of the soul

metaphysical perspective

astrology

numerology

Spiritualist perspective

theological perspective

bending spoons

bioenergy (aura)

colors

exploring your aura

healing

birth, soul’s beginnings

metaphysical perspective

Spiritualist perspective

theological perspective

black aura

blue aura

brown aura

burial preparations

embalming

kamis

positioning for rebirth

transport of souls across the river Styx

C

cabinet séances

calling spirit guides

activating mediumistic abilities

guided meditation

canopic jars

Catholic Church, communion of spirits

causal subtle body

Cayce, Edgar

celebrations of spirit, continuity of spirit

communion of spirits

Day of the Dead

Festival of Samhain

Celtic New Year

ceremony

rites of passage

Shamanism

chakras, subtle bodies

change

challenges of

breaking free from negative patterns

establishing and maintaining positive patterns

power of free will

power of love and goodness

temperature changes, receiving spirit communication

changing negative thinking to positive thoughts

characteristics of near-death experiences

Charon

circle of necessity

circles

focus

modern circles

closed circles

guidelines

inviting spirit presence

open circles

participants

trumpet circles

séances

cabinet séances

materialist mediums

phenomena versus fiction

trance mediums

clairaudience

clairsentience

clairvoyance

closed circles

clothing/fabrics, objects that retain energy (psychometry)

collective unconscious, Jungian dream analysis

colors, aura

comfort from the other side, healing

common good

communication, receiving spirit communication

activating mediumistic abilities

goodness and light

intuition

communion of spirits

companions of the soul

companionship, interpreting

spirit messages

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Astrology, The

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Numerology, The

confusion, psychic confusion of spirit contacts

connections

divine energy

meditation

prayer

yoga

earth plane

past and future

guided meditation

past life therapy

spirit plane

consciousness, enhancing psychical senses

contact dreams, activating mediumistic abilities

contacts, reasons for making spiritual contact

curiosity

healing

mission of soul

personal reasons (self-exploration)

contemporary beliefs, continuity of spirit

communion of spirits

Day of the Dead

Festival of Samhain

continuity of life

discarnate spirits

physical plane

spirit plane

validation readings

continuity of spirit

contemporary beliefs

communion of spirits

Day of the Dead

Festival of Samhain

Spiritualism

appeal of

Davis, Andrew Jackson

doubters, challengers and frauds

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Fox sisters

mediumship

continuity of time

controlling minds, inability of telepathy

cosmic clutter, spirit contacts

cosmology

counsel from spirit guides, directed communication exercise

crisis contact, telepathy

crisis presences, interpreting spirit messages

crown chakra

crystals

culture

indigenous beliefs

African spirit traditions

Mayan spirit traditions

Native American spirit traditions

preparing for the afterlife

embalming

kamis

positioning for rebirth

transport of souls across the river Styx

rituals, ceremony and tradition

rites of passage

Shamanism

curiosity, as reason for making spiritual contact

customs, preparing for the afterlife

embalming

kamis

positioning for rebirth

transport of souls across the river Styx

cycle of existence

cycle of learning, developing your own mediumistic skills

D

Darwin, Charles

data dumping (dreams)

Davis, Andrew Jackson

Day of the Dead

death

assisting transition of the soul

activity on the higher side

completing unfinished business

interrupting souls

releasing fear

releasing love

suicide deaths

violent deaths

wishful thinking

NDEs

edge of death

return to physical life

Defending Your Life

desperate illusions, self as medium fraud

destiny

developing mediumistic skills

cycle of learning

directed communication exercise

freeing medium within

innate psychical talents

learning focus

circles

establishing intent

filtering signals

mediums versus psychics

mentors

realistic expectations

responsibility

handling challenges

helping others

schools

developing psychomety skills

reading familiar energy

reading random energy

directed communication exercise

counsel of spirit guides

discovering your own psychical abilities

meeting your spirit guides

discarnate spirits

discovering your own mediumistic skills

cycle of learning

directed communication exercise

freeing medium within

innate psychical talents

learning focus

circles

establishing intent

filtering signals

mediums versus psychics

mentors

realistic expectations

responsibility

handling challenges

helping others

schools

distance learning programs

Divine Spiritualism

divine energy, connecting with

meditation

prayer

yoga

divine order (NDEs), versus accidents

doubters of continuity of spirit

dowsers

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

validating telepathy

Dragonfly

drawing energy from the universe

dream state, telepathy

dreams

activating mediumistic abilities

data dumping

dream state

spirit contacts

Freudian view

interacting with spirits in your dreams

interpretation

premonitions and warnings

symbolism

inviting spirit visitations

journaling

Jungian view archetypes

collective unconscious

mythology connection

nightmares

past life

receiving spirit communiation

setting aside consciousness to enhance psychical senses

understanding emotions and feelings

E

earth energy

earth plane

connecting for the greater good

growth after NDEs

earthbound spirits

advice and warnings

helping find release

mysteries of Winchester mansion

atonement of the sins of the family

fascination with number thirteen

séance room

nonacceptance of passings

paranormal phenomena

apparitions and visions

sounds

visitations

easing grief, interpreting spirit messages

ectoplasm

edge of death (NDEs)

Edge of the Unknown, The

embalming

emotional subtle body

emotions

journaling emotionally powerful messages

understanding through dreams

empowerment, healing

energy

animal energy

passing to spirit

power animals

bioenergy (aura)

colors

exploring your aura

healing

chakras

connecting with your divine energy

meditation

prayer

yoga

connection to spirit

earth energy

healing

absent healing

drawing energy from the universe

hands-on energy healing

lessons of healing

maintaining energy balance

self-healing

Spiritualist healing

human energy field

imprints

Kirlian photography

intent, soul patterns

karma

life as an exchange of energy

energy you acquire from others

energy you give to others

objects that retain energy

fabrics/clothing

furnishings

metals

missing person trails

plant energy

aromatherapy

flower essences

medicinal plants

positive energy

exercise

spirit guides

thoughts

changing negative thinking to positive

negative energy of worry

transformation of negative energy

universe, helping others

world energy

enhancing psychic skills

epinephrine

ESP (extrasensory perception)

essence of your being

establishing intent

focus

modern circles

recognizing spirit contacts

etheric subtle body

evolution of spirit

exchange of energy, life as an

energy you acquire from others

energy you give to others

exercises for developing psychometry skills

reading familiar energy

reading random energy

existence

cycle of existence

energy

chakras

human energy field

physical plane

spirit plane

expanding senses

physical

psychic

telepathic

experiencing spirit contacts, medium experiences

exploring your aura

extended learning programs

extrasensory perception. See ESP

F

fabrics/clothing, objects that retain energy (psychometry)

faith systems, Akashic records references

fakes (mediums)

misguided intentions

money seekers

self as the fraud, desperate illusions

tricks

familiar form spirits, healing

family members, as spirit guides

Fates (Greek mythology)

fear

associated fear, recognizing spirit contacts

releasing, assisting transition of the soul after death

feelings, understanding through dreams

Festival of Samhain

“fight or flight” survival response

filtering signals, focus

filters, understanding messages

fishing (mediums)

flower essences, plant energy

focus, discovering your own psychical abilities

circles

establishing intent

filtering signals

forehead chakra

forms of spirit communication

automatic writing

psychometry

spirit drawing

spirit photography

transfiguration

fortune, kamis

Fox, Catherine

Fox, Margaretta

frauds (mediums)

continuity of spirit

misguided intentions

money seekers

self as the fraud, desperate illusions

tricks

Fraudulent Medium Act

free association

exercise in understanding archetypes

free choice

free will, power of

Freud, Sigmund, dream analysis

friends, as spirit guides

furnishings, objects that retain energy (psychometry)

future, connecting with

G

gemstones

Ghost

Ghostbusters

gifts (psychic)

applications

helping others

making sense of expeiences

reclaiming curiosity

shaping future

identifying psychic gifts

goodness

NDEs

power of

readings

receiving spirit communication

greater good

green aura

grief consolation, interpreting spirit messages

guidance, spirit guides

guided meditation

calling spirit guides

connecting with your past

power animal journey

guidelines for modern circles

establishing intent

setting an open and positive attitude

guides (spirit)

calling through guided meditation

cast of thousands

counsel, directed communication exercise

expertise of those who have gone on

family members

friends

guidance

meeting

directed communication exercise

identifying your spirit guide

positive energy

someone to watch over you

strangers

gustation

H

Halloween

Hamlet

hands-on energy healing (Reiki)

hauntings

healers

healing

as reason for making spiritual contact

aura

comfort from the other side

empowerment

energy healing

absent healing

drawing energy from the universe

hands-on energy healing

lessons of healing

maintaining energy balance

self-healing

Spiritualist healing

familiar form spirits

insight

mediumship

modern circles

personal growth

unfinished business

hearing, clairaudience

heart chakra

heaven

hell

help and healing, Spiritualism

hereafter

external existence with the gods

faith systems

Hollywood versions

soul’s destination

high-frequency vibrations (energy)

History of Spiritualism, The

Hollywood versions of the hereafter

Houdini, Harry

human energy field, subtle bodies

I

identification of spirits, recognizing spirit contacts

identifying psychic gifts

identifying spirit contacts

communication challenge

interpreting spirit messages

amending mistakes

companionship

crisis presences

easing grief

shared lessons

spirit’s needs

psychical vocabulary of symbolism

reading fragments of information

identifying your spirit guide

images, receiving spirit communiation

immediate cognition. See intuition

indigenous beliefs

African spirit traditions

Mayan spirit traditions

Native American spirit traditions

innate psychical talents

insight

applying psychic abilities

healing

intellectual subtle body

intent

energy of, soul patterns

establishing intent modern circles

recognizing spirit contacts

power of intent, Spiritualism

interacting with spirits in your dreams

Interpretation of Dreams, The

interpretations

dreams

premonitions and warnings

symbolism

spirit messages

amending mistakes

companionship

crisis presences

easing grief

shared lessons

spirit’s needs

intuition

inviting spirit presence, modern circles

identifying spirit

manifestations of spirit contact

request for healing

J

jewelry, retained energy

journaling

dreams

exercise, understanding messages

journey of the soul

changing soul’s path

finding fulfillment in this life

growth and evolution

meaning

lessons for yourself

lessons to others

past life regression

Julian calendar

Jung, Carl, dream analysis

archetypes

collective unconscious

mythology connection

K-L

kamis, fortune

karma

Kilner, Walter J.

Kirlian, Seymon (Kirlian photography)

Klotho

Lachesis

lessons

healing

NDEs

levels of existence

physical plane

spirit plane

levitation

life as an exchange of energy

energy you acquire from others

energy you give to others

life-changing experiences, understanding messages

light

NDEs

receiving spirit communication

limit setting, spirit contacts

linking to spirit contact, psychometry

Lodge, Sir Oliver

love

power of

releasing, assisting transition of the soul after death

low-frequency vibrations (energy)

M

magnetic energy, maintaining energy balance

magnets

maintaining energy balance

manifestations of spirit contact, modern circles

materialist mediums, séances

materialization

Mayan spirit traditions

meaning

dreams

premonitions and warnings

symbolism

life journey

lessons for yourself

lessons to others

medicinal plants, plant energy

meditation

connecting with your divine energy

mediums

activating mediumistic abilities

called spirits

dreams

discovering your own skills

circles

cycle of learning

directed communication exercise

establishing intent

freeing medium within

innate psychical talents

learning focus

mediums versus psychics

mentors

realistic expectations

responsibility

schools

energy healing

experiences during a spirit communication

forms of spirit communication

automatic writing

psychometry

spirit drawing

spirit photography

transfiguration

frauds

misguided intentions

money seekers

self as the fraud

tricks

medium circles

psychic abilities

qualifications

choosing a medium

training and experience

readings

goodness guide

messages

validation of the continuity of life

versus psychics

mediumship, Spiritualism

help and healing

physical phenomena

power of intent

power of the Divine

proof of continuity of life

telepathy

meeting your spirit guides

directed communication exercise

identifying your spirit guide

mental phenomena

recognizing spirit contacts

telepathy

mental subtle body

mentors, developing your own mediumistic skills

messages

emotionally powerful messages

journaling

interpreting information

details

filters

symbolism of spirit communication

life-changing experiences

message work

peace of understanding

readings

seeking clarification

from the spirit world

from yourself

transformation of negative energy

metals, objects that retain energy (psychometry)

metaphysical perspective of the soul’s beginnings

astrology

numerology

Mictecacihuatl

misguided intentions, medium frauds

missing person trails, objects that retain energy (psychometry)

mission of soul

as reason for making spiritual contact

modern circles

closed

guidelines

establishing intent

setting an open and positive attitude

inviting spirit presence

identifying spirit

manifestations of spirit contact

request for healing

open

participants

trumpet circles

mummification

mysteries of Winchester mansion

atonement of the sins of the family

fascination with number thirteen

séance room

mythology

Jungian dream analysis

transport of souls across the river Styx

Underworld

N

Native American spirit traditions

natron

NDEs (near-death experiences)

bright lights

common characteristics

edge of death

goodness and love of the higher side

growth on the earth plane

return to physical life

seeing yourself

simultaneous earth and spirit plane

“time to go,” divine order versus accidents

transforming experience

heightened spiritual sensitivity

lessons

new psychic senses

trauma that precipitates a NDE

tunnel travel

welcoming spirits

near-death experiences. See NDEs

Necropolis

negative energy

transformation

worry

New Revelation, The

nightmares

Nirvana

no rapid eye movement sleep. See NREM sleep

NREM sleep (no rapid eye movement sleep)

numerology, metaphysical perspective of the soul’s beginnings

O

objects that retain energy (psychometry)

fabrics/clothing

furnishings

metals

missing person trails

Olam Ha-Ba

olfaction

open circles

orange aura

P

pagan beliefs

Paleolithic period

paradigm shifts

paranormal phenomena

apparitions and visions

sounds

parapsychologists

passing over, assisting transition of the soul

activity on the higher side

completing unfinished business

interrupting souls

releasing fear

releasing love

suicide deaths

violent deaths

wishful thinking

past

connecting with

guided meditation

past life therapy

life dreams

life regression

life therapy

path of spirit progression

patterns of the soul

breaking free from negative patterns

energy of intent

establishing and maintaining positive patterns

insight and learning

positive energy exercise

peace of understanding messages

personal growth, healing

personal reasons (self-exploration), as reason for making spiritual contact

phenomena

mental

physical

versus fiction (séances)

philosophy

photography

Kirlian

spirit

physical phenomena

mediumship

recognizing spirit contacts

physical plane (level of existence)

physical senses

expanding physical senses

tangibilities

pink aura

planes of existence

plant energy

aromatherapy

flower essences

medicinal plants

positioning for rebirth, cultural preparations for burial

positive energy

exercise

spirit guides

positive thoughts, changing negative thinking to positive thoughts

possibilities of psychic abilities

power animals, animal energy

guided meditation

passing to spirit

power of free will

power of intent, mediumship

power of love and goodness

power of the Divine, mediumship

prana

prayer, connecting with your divine energy

precognition

premonitions, dream interpretation

preparations for burials

embalming

kamis

positioning for rebirth

transport of souls across the river Styx

Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, The

progression of spirits

proof of continuity of life, Spiritualism

prying, avoiding in telepathy

psychic abilities of mediums

psychic confusion

psychic gifts

applications

helping others

making sense of expeiences

reclaiming curiosity

shaping future

identifying psychic gifts

psychic senses

expanding psychic senses

intuition

precognition

psychometry

telepathy

psychic skills versus psychical abilities

psychic vampires

psychical abilities

discovering your own

cycle of learning

directed communication exercise

freeing medium within

innate psychical talents

learning focus

mediums versus psychics

mentors

realistic expectations

responsibility

schools

versus psychic skills

psychical senses

clairaudience

clairsentience

clairvoyance

setting aside consciousness

dreams

meditation

trance

psychical vocabulary of symbolism, identifying spirit contact

psychics, versus mediums

psychokinesis. See telekinesis

psychometry

development exercises

reading familiar energy

reading random energy

energy imprints

Kirlian photography

linking to spirit contact

objects that retain energy

fabrics/clothing

furnishings

metals

missing person trails

spirit presence versus residual energy

purgatory

purple aura

Pythagoras

Q-R

questions, asking the right questions

rapid eye movement sleep. See REM sleep

rapping

reading familiar energy exercise, developing psychometry skills

reading random energy exercise, developing psychometry skills

readings

goodness guide

messages

validation of the continuity of life

realistic expectations, developing your own mediumistic skills

reasons for making spiritual contact

curiosity

healing

mission of soul

personal reasons (self-exploration)

receiving spirit communication

activating mediumistic abilities

called spirits

dreams

goodness and light

intuition

recognizing a spirit’s identity

communication challenge

interpreting spirit messages

amending mistakes

companionship

crisis presences

easing grief

shared lessons

spirit’s needs

psychical vocabulary of symbolism

reading fragments of information

recognizing spirit contact

associated fear

cosmic clutter

establishment of intent

mental phenomena

physical phenomena

psychic confusion

setting limits

spirit identification

spirit static

visitations

red aura

Reiki (hands-on energy healing)

reincarnation

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory

religious beliefs, continuity of spirit

communion of spirits

Day of the Dead

Festival of Samhain

REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep)

residual energy versus spirit presence

resurrection

return to physical life (NDEs)

reward and punishment, soul’s destination

Rhine, Joseph Banks, validating telepathy, Zener cards

rites of passage

rituals

burial preparations

rites of passage

Shamanism

root chakra

Rosna, Charles

S

sacral chakra

scents, receiving spirit communication

schools, developing your own mediumistic skills

séances

cabinet

materialist mediums

modern circles

closed

guidelines

inviting spirit presence

open

participants

trumpet circles

phenomena versus fiction

trance mediums

self-exploration

possibilities of psychic abilities

where you want your skills to take you

self-healing exercise

senses

physical

expanding physical senses

tangibilities

psychic

expanding psychic senses

intuition

precognition

psychometry

telepathy

psychical

clairaudience

clairsentience

clairvoyance

setting aside consciousness

sensory activation, receiving spirit communiation

setting limits, spirit contacts

shadows, receiving spirit communication

Shamanism

shared lessons, interpreting spirit messages

Shinto

Sixth Sense, The

skills

self-exploration of where you want your skills to take you

shaping and enhancing

Society for Psychical Research

solar plexus chakra

soul

Akashic record

assisting transition after death

activity on the higher side

completing unfinished business

interrupting souls

releasing fear

releasing love

suicide deaths

violent deaths

wishful thinking

beginnings

metaphysical perspective

spiritualist perspective

theological perspective

companions

destination after death

external existence with the gods

faith systems

journey of

changing your soul’s path

finding fulfillment in this life

growth and evolution

meaning

past life regression

mission

patterns

breaking free from negative patterns

energy of intent

establishing and maintaining positive patterns

insight and learning

positive energy exercise

reincarnation

sounds (paranormal phenomena)

spirit contacts, dreams

spirit drawing

spirit guides

calling through guided meditation

cast of thousands

counsel, directed communication exercise

expertise of those who have gone on

family members

friends

guidance

meeting

directed communication exercise

identifying your spirit guide

positive energy

someone to watch over you

strangers

spirit plane (level of existence)

connecting for the greater good

spirits

discarnate spirits

earthbound spirits

advice and warnings

helping find release

mysteries of Winchester mansion

nonacceptance of passings

paranormal phenomena

visitations

physical plane

receiving communications

activating mediumistic abilities

goodness and light

intuition

spirit plane

Spiritual Philosopher, The

Spiritualism

appeal of

Davis, Andrew Jackson

doubters, challengers and frauds

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Fox sisters

healing

mediumship

help and healing

physical phenomena

power of intent

power of the Divine

proof of continuity of life

soul’s beginnings

telepathy

Spiritualist Church

spoon bending

Stone Age

strangers, as spirit guides

subtle bodies (human energy field)

vibrational levels

sudden lights, receiving spirit communiation

suicide deaths, transition of the soul

Swedenborg, Emanuel, visitation to Andrew Jackson Davis

symbolism

dream interpretation

spirit communication, understanding messages

T

table-tipping

tangibilities

TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)

telekinesis

telepathy

avoiding prying

controlling minds

crisis contact

crisis telepathy, receving spirit communication

dream state

sharpening skills

telekinesis

validating

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Rhine, Joseph Banks, Zener cards

temperature changes, receiving spirit communiation

theological perspective, soul’s beginnings

“third eye” chakra

thought transference

thoughts, energy of

changing negative thinking to positive thoughts

negative energy of worry

throat chakra

time, continuity of

“time to go” (NDEs), divine order versus accidents

touch, receiving spirit communication

tradition

rites of passage

Shamanism

traditional Chinese medicine. See TCM

training mediums

trances

trance mediums, séances

transcendence of the self (Nirvana)

transfiguration

transformation of negative energy

transition of the soul after death

activity on the higher side

completing unfinished business

interrupting souls

releasing fear

releasing love

suicide deaths

violent deaths

wishful thinking

tricks, medium frauds

trumpet circles

tunnel travel, NDEs

U

understanding messages

details

delivering messages

researching further

emotionally powerful messages

journaling

filters

life-changing experiences

peace of understanding

seeking clarification

from the spirit world

from yourself

symbolism of spirit communication

transformation of negative energy

Underworld

unfinished business

assisting transition of the soul after death

healing

Univericoelum

universe, energy of, helping others

V

validating telepathy

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Rhine, Joseph Banks, Zener cards

validation of the continuity of life, readings

vibrational levels, subtle bodies

violent deaths, transition of the soul

vision, clairvoyance

visitations

earthbound spirits

inviting spirit visitations into dreams

recognizing spirit contacts

Vital Message, The

voices, receiving spirit communication

W-X-Y-Z

waking dreams, receiving spirit communiation

Wanderings of a Spiritualist

warnings

dream interpretation

earthbound spirits

What Dreams May Come

white aura

Winchester mansion mysteries

atonement of the sins of the family

fascination with number thirteen

séance room

wishful thinking, transition of the soul

working circles

world’s energy

worry, negative energy of

yellow aura

yoga, connecting with your divine energy

Zener, Karl (Zener cards), validating telepathy